Moving Forward
by Shadow knight1121
Summary: Life as they know it has ended, they have lost their homes, families and themselves to the walking dead. With no where to go and no one they can trust a group of survivors must learn to trust and live side by side in order to survive. When all else fails the only thing they can do is keep moving forward. No More OC's.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:One Bad Day**

 **Authors Note: Okay, this story has been kicking around my noggin for a long time now and after some writer's block and the hype for the next season of walking dead I finally decided to write this damn story. It will be syoc and I will accept a variety of characters whether they are good, bad or a little bit of both. I will have the sheet at the end of this story. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

 **(Paul's POV)**

* * *

I groaned at the loud ring from my phone's alarm and groggily slammed my fingers on the touch screen until it stopped. I slowly climbed out of bed and stretched my tired limbs out, not looking forward to the day ahead of me. I was scheduled to work all day pushing carts at my local grocery store and since it was the middle of the summer on a week day everyone was coming down to shop for camping and vacations and all that other B.S. and since my mom had to work early I had to walk there at seven in the morning.

I was in for a shit day.

After I quickly brushed my teeth and nibbled on some pop-tarts I grabbed my thermos full of coffee and headed out to work. Despite having to walk to work, it could have been worse. I lived in a suburban neighborhood with my mother and paid what I could to keep up afloat. It was a beautiful quiet morning and there was hardly any traffic which made it easy for me to cross the streets, but as I made my way closer to the store I noticed that traffic was starting to pick up near the shopping plaza. The outdoor man store was packed and people were lined up near the gas station filling up not just their cars, but their gas cans too.

"What the hell is going on?" I said to myself. I don't watch the news too much, but I don't think there were any storms inbound. I shook my head thinking that the store was going to be packed as well and I dreaded what I was in store for.

Sure, enough I was right, the second I stepped into the parking lot at eight in the morning and the parking lot was flooded with cars and carts were all over the place and some of them were even turned over. I let out a heavy groan before stomping my ass into the store and it was just as messy.

People were stocking up like fucking crazy.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked my boss as she was running the first register.

"I don't know they were all lined up and waiting outside." She snapped. "Could you just get those carts please?"

"Yeah, I got it!" I shouted.

I clocked in and started gathering up some carts as quick as I could and after a few hours it started to calm down, but traffic was getting crazy. Stuff like this was to be expected in the summer time, but this was just crazy. I don't know I just wanted to go home, pound beer and call it a day.

It was around one 'o'clock when I went on my lunch break and I was out to go get a burger and fries when I heard the sounds of tires screeching and a loud crash. I looked down towards the parking lot and I spotted a minivan and a pickup truck crushed together. I don't know what the hell happened but everyone started to gather around. I slowly crept towards the wreckage as well and I cringed when I started seeing blood pouring out of the driver side of the minivan.

"Oh fuck!" I snapped before stumbling backwards on my ass. An ambulance soon rolled up and the paramedics ran out and told everyone to back away as a fire truck pulled up. They quickly got to work prying the car door open to let the woman out of the minivan and everyone gasped when she was removed. She was covered in blood and her right arm was broken to the point where you could see the bones sticking out. I almost lost it all over the place when I heard the cracking of bone when her arm moved.

I watched as they went to work on the pickup truck and the paramedics worked on the woman. She was in and out of it for the most part, but she was still alive, so that was good. One of the paramedics started to get her ready to move her when the woman started to come to. I saw her eyes open and to my surprise she was moving around a lot, she even moved her broken arm around a bit and she didn't make any noise, just low grunts and moans.

The paramedic advised her not to moves, but she kept trying to get up.

Then she bit her.

I blinked and a second later her teeth were sunk into the paramedic's face and blood was pouring out all over the place. Everyone started freaking out, including myself. Some people ran away while others tried to pry the two away from each other.

I just ran and I didn't look back.

Not knowing what to do I ran back home and that's when I noticed that everyone was packing up. I passed one house where a family was packing boxes into their cars while another house where a mother was carrying her bleeding son into the son.

"What the fuck!?" I don't know what the fuck to do, but to head home and wait for mom to come home. I forgot I had my phone and I quickly pulled it out to call her and let her know to be careful on the drive home. She wasn't answering and this was making me more nervous. She always has her phone on her, unless she is already home and she could be asleep. I don't know any more I just kept thinking about that woman who was eating that medic's face.

My money is that she was on meth or something I mean that must be why right, she took too much and the crash fucked her up royally. I really need to get home.

I finally made it to my street and ran to my house after nearly getting hit by an oncoming car. I stumbled on my front lawn and I quickly made my way to the front door, before hearing my name being called out.

"Paul!"

I turned around and saw my mother down by the driveway, standing next to the mailbox. She was alive and she was home. I smiled and ran down the driveway to get her in the house, but before I could get there she was struck by an oncoming car. I paused when I saw her go down.

It looked quick, but it was all so slow for me. I couldn't breathe, move or even think. She was dead and the asshole that hit her didn't even stop to get out or look back. They just kept on driving and left me alone with my mother.

I somehow made my way to her and I knelt beside her. It just happened so fast I still can't believe it. She was so still, maybe her neck broke or I don't know. I just stay by her side as tears roll down my face.

I don't know how long I have been kneeling next to her, but after some time she started to twitch. I jumped when she did it and I started to get excited. She was still alive.

"Mom." I choked out through my sobs. I slowly walk around where I could face her and she was letting out some small painful groans that broke my heart. She was in pain and no one was helping her. I grabbed my phone and I went to dial 911, but the damn line was busy.

"Fuck!" I shouted. I threw my phone away and stayed close to mom. "Hey, stay with me, mom."

I saw her staring at me with pale white eyes. What…the…fuck?

Mom started to move towards me and I couldn't help but to jump back. My legs were still shaky from all the trauma and I fell as she started to stand up.

She looked at me like she didn't know me at all and I don't even think she was the woman I knew. What the hell was she?

Her mouth started to foam and her groans turned into growls as she let out a scream and charged after me. I could do nothing but scream.

 **(Okay, bit of a slow start, but hopefully it will get better. Now, here is the list of requirements for the characters you wish to send and I will allow two characters per person. Also, I don't want people who have stashes of guns and food in bomb shelters, just some regular joes will do and this will take place in Atlanta and beyond. The story will start out on the highway in a traffic jam right before the bombings.)**

 **Name:**

 **Race:**

 **Gender:**

 **Age: 9-60**

 **Gay or Straight**

 **Hair color/style and eye color.**

 **Personality: How they act at the start of the crisis and how they change as time goes on.**

 **Skills.**

 **Vehicle: Not required, but if they have one go ahead.**

 **Preferable Primary Gun: Rifle, Shotgun, Bow and Arrow, ect.**

 **Side arm, preferable: Six gun or pistol.**

 **Melee weapon.**

 **Clothes**

 **Start out gear: Basically, whatever they have around their house hold. Crackers, batteries, junk in the medicine cabinet.**

 **Treasured Item: Examples, Carl's hat, Glenn's watch, Daryl's vest. Not required, but it's there if you want.**

 **Backstory: Basically, whatever they were doing before the crisis and where they were planning to go to ride out the crisis.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Like Cattle to Slaughter**

 **Authors Note: Holy $hit did I get more than I bargained for when I asked you guys for ocs. I do like a lot of your characters, but damn I got a lot of hunters with medical training in one form or another. I'm not saying that you guys are entitled to your characters, but damn they all don't have to be Daryl Dixon or Rick Grimes. Anyways, this is my first chapter featuring most of the characters. Now, it will be in 3** **rd** **for the most part, but it will take the point of view from one of your characters every now and again. I hope you all enjoy and don't hate me if your character dies, you all know it can happen at any time. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

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(Johnny Mckellen POV)

Only thirty more minutes and I am out of here.

I was absentmindedly twirled my skullcap around my finger as Mr. Chang went on about this and that, but I paid him no mind. Science was never my thing and it showed since I was on my last day of summer school for it.

I couldn't wait to go home and just enjoy what little down time I had left. I stared out into the trees and waited for that damn bell to ring. I jumped when I felt my hat snatched off my finger and looked up to see Mr. Chang staring at me. He dressed professionally for a high school teacher. Most teacher just wore slacks and a nice shirt, but his shirt was a crisp clean white dress shirt with a red and black striped tie and freshly ironed blue pants with shiny black dress shoes. The stern expression on his face and the way he was gripping my hat told me he was not amused by my short attention span.

"Mr. Mckellen," He announced to the class. "I see you are experimenting with aerodynamics?" He said as he spun my hat around his finger. "Tell me, what is all this on my white board?"

I looked at the board and saw a bunch of line and triangles on the board and what looked like an atom in the bottom left hand corner of the board. "Well, by merely observing the board I'd say that there is lines and triangles on the board. Trees, I believe they are called and next to those trees are atoms."

The class erupted in light giggles and scoffs, while Mr. Chang rolls his eyes and tosses my hat back to me. He stomps up to the board and jabs his index finger onto the white surface. "You're missing the point, Mr. Mckellen. You see a bunch of lines that make a tree. Do you know what I see?"

I shake my head and he snatches a marker of his desk and starts to angrily draw and stab his marker on the board. He steps aside and we see that the atom is now a cat with whiskers.

"I see a kitty in a tree." He chuckles and so do a few others including myself. "Truth be told I didn't care much about this stuff much either, mostly because I studied it when I was in third grade." Everyone chuckled again. "The point I'm trying to make is that you should find something you are interested in and make that into your future. Then you can have a wife and a son and they can visit your in-laws while you're stuck in school in the middle of the summer."

Everyone let out another laugh, before the bell rang, letting us all know it was time to go.

"Everyone, enjoy your down time, or what little you have left and I will see you in September." Mr. Chang said.

Everyone was ready to head out, but stopped when a loud scream echoed throughout the halls. I and everyone else jumped when we heard the noise and we all scrambled out into the hallway. We all stopped when we reached the main hall to see a security guard restraining, Terry Webster who was snarling and biting at the guard while a few other students were trying nurse the bloody wound on a poor boy's neck.

"What the fuck happened?" Mr. Chang shouted. I've never heard him curse before, though I don't think any of us have ever seen someone with blood coming out of their fucking throats before.

"I don't know, "The guard grunted as he struggled to restrain Terry. "Benny over there said that he found Terry slumped in the bathroom stall with a needle in his arm, the next thing I know he's on top of him chewing his throat out!"

I looked over at Benny who was gurgling badly, before his body slumped down on the floor.

Holy shit.

Everyone started to panic, I looked over to Mr. Chang who was stuttering and shaking all over. I don't know how long I was standing there, but just like Terry, Benny shot up from the ground like a snake and sunk his teeth into one of the student's neck. Everyone screamed and ran as far away from the scene, including me.

When I got outside I didn't know what to do, but whatever happened to those boys was happening everywhere. I saw another student being chewed on by a teacher and the drug dealer that sold that crap to Terry. He looked up at me with his pale white eyes as he chewed on flesh and blood dripped from his mouth. I almost lost my lunch right then and there.

I ran away and headed straight home, my feet stomping on the ground so hard that I could have left holes in the sidewalk. I was going to feel that pain in the morning. On the way home, I had a couple of close encounters with these things, some of them tried to grab me, but they were caught behind the picket fences, so they couldn't reach him.

Then there were the ones behind the trees that popped out of nowhere. One of them managed to tackle him to the ground, but I could keep its teeth away from my throat and it didn't get a good grip on me and I was able to eventually push it off. After I threw it off I continued making my way towards my house.

I finally saw my blue house in the distance, but the first thing I recognized was my mother by the mailbox and my neighbor, Mr. Burton, grabbing onto her. She was screaming for help as he tried to sink his teeth into her wrist, but she kept him back by pushing her hand against his forehead.

I charged at my former neighbor, pulling my switchblade from my jean pocket, and tackled the bastard to the ground. I was angry at him for causing my mother harm and I started stabbing wildly into his stomach, but he was still chomping and scratching at my face. I plunged my knife into his chest, but he was still going, until I finally stabbed the blade into the left side of his head. It let out a dying gurgle, before his hands fell from my face and plopped down on the ground lifeless.

I was shaking at what I had just done. I had just killed someone. I don't know what is happening, but Burton had been kind to me and my mother for some time. He always took an interest in how my day was going and he helped with the yard work when it needed to be done. He was a good man and now he was dead by my hand.

After my head stopped spinning and reality was coming back to me I looked down at Burton and noticed a large bite mark on his neck. It wasn't too severe, but compared to the wounds I had just delivered it was close to black and judging by the visibility of his veins it looked infected.

Is that how it happened.

"Johnny!"

I jumped when my mother called me. I immediately got up from the ground and went to her aid. My blood ran cold when I saw a small cut on her wrist. It didn't look to deep, so maybe it wouldn't get infected.

"Are you okay, mom?"

"I-I just don't understand we've known him for years." She whimpered as she looked down at the man I had just stabbed. "How could he do this?"

"Mom, I don't think that was him anymore." I sighed as I helped her inside. "Let's get inside where it's safe." She quickly walked inside and made her way to the kitchen while I closed and locked the door and even slid the end table in front of it.

I closed the curtains and blinds for all the windows and make sure everything is locked up tight. When I am sure that we are all safe and sound, I go to my mother and help her with her cut. She has already disinfected it, so now all there is to do is bandage it up.

"What happened?" He asked her as he grabbed a couple of gauze from the first aid kit and placed them on her wrist.

"I was out getting the mail and Burton just came out of nowhere." She whimpered as I started to wrap the bandage around her wrist. "His eyes were white too, I've never seen something like that."

"I know, I saw them too." I grimaced. "It happened at school too." My mother looked up at me worried eyes. "Two of them, one was a junkie and the other was…it was just a mess. We are together and we are safe, that is all that matters."

"Of course." She smiled. "I think that tomorrow morning we make our way to the airport and head back home to England where it might be safe."

"England, we haven't been there since Dad left." I stated. Dad told us he was going out to get food and he just never came back again. That was when I was eight. Mom was so devastated, she packed us up and moved us down here to Atlanta.

"I know, but this is happening all over, Atlanta." She explained. "I saw it on the news. They were tearing apart downtown and a few nearby neighbor hoods. We have to get out."

"Mom, if it's happening all over then they will probably have the airports shut down." I explained as I finally finished her bandage. She pulled her hand back and examined the wound.

"Look, we just have to try and make our way there, if it's a bust then we'll try something else, okay?"

"Alright, mom." I smiled.

"Ugh, I'm gonna go lay down." She said as she stood up from her chair. "I'm starting to get a bit of a headache."

"I closed and locked up everything there is. I'm just going to pack up some of our stuff." She nodded and kissed me on the head, before heading off to her room.

I did a quick look around the house, starting with the kitchen. I looked through the fridge and we only had left overs, which were all spoiled. The cabinets had stale foods and condiments, so I helped myself to a bowl of dried up cheerios and some toast. We would need to stop at a store or something tomorrow.

After I ate I threw everything in the sink and went up to my room and packed up whatever clothes I had in the closet and the drawers. I was mostly just doing this to keep myself busy. There was no way I was sleeping tonight. Fuck, I needed a cigarette. I went over to my bed and crawled underneath it to get my big aluminum flashlight that had two packs worth of smokes smuggled into the handle. I unscrewed the cap and quickly reached inside to pull out the baggy of smokes.

I was so anxious to light one up that I forgot to check if mom was still awake. That's when I heard a thump from mom's room. I looked over at my alarm clock and it read seven thirty. I got home around three so that means that I was roaming around my house for over four hours. Mom, probably woke up and ended up tripping over something. I quickly shove my smokes back in the flashlight when I heard a loud crash from her room this time around.

I dropped the flashlight and pulled out my switchblade and ran to her room. I burst through the door and I was tackled against the wall by my own mother. Her teeth were snapping at me, same as Burton's, her eyes were white and everything that she was, was no more.

I had my switchblade in my right hand and her neck in my left. I didn't have a lot of room to move, but just enough for one quick strike. Tears were rolling down my cheeks and I couldn't believe I was even considering this. This thing though, it was no longer my mother and it had to die.

"I'm sorry, Mom."

I swung my switchblade into her left temple and it was all over.

(Marty Chang POV)

"What's happening, you're breaking up!" I shouted at my wife on the phone. After what happened at school I headed straight home and called my wife to tell her what happened, but it turns out that whatever happened at school today was happening all over, including South Carolina.

"These army men just started rounding up everyone and they dragged us off to, Fort Jackson." Donna whimpered. "I have, Drew."

"Okay, go with them. I will come for you, okay!" I shouted, but got nothing but a static response. "Donna?"

"ArTy." Was all she said before the line went dead.

"FUCK!" I shouted before throwing the phone against the wall. I started packing whatever I could. I grabbed my duffel bag from the closet along with the baseball bat and threw them on the kitchen table. I threw in all our canned good from the pantry and anything that didn't need to be cooked along with the can opener. Then some bottled water along with the emergency kit and our big flashlight we use for camping. I slung the bag over my shoulder and I grabbed the bat off the table and I was ready to head out when I remembered something else.

I set everything down by the door and quickly picked up my brief case that I threw down on the floor when I first stepped in. I pop it open and there it sits, the black army knife I had confiscated off one of my students. I turned it around for a few seconds and jumped when the blade popped out. I quickly look for the latch and push it aside to close the blade. I probably wouldn't be able to use it on someone, but if I needed to kill a man to get to my family, so be it.

I slip it on my belt and collect my things before heading out to my white Honda Odyssey Minivan. I run into my garage and throw everything into the passenger side, before hopping into the driver side. I use my clicker to open the garage door and make I slowly make my way out of the garage and down the road away.

I take it slow, since I can't tell these things from people, especially when they are clumped together. I slowly cruise through the neighborhood, being careful not to hit anyone when I spot someone sitting on their porch, just smoking.

That's when I recognized him.

"Johnny Mckellen?" I called out. He looked up at me and I could tell from the red in his eyes that he has been crying. "What are you doing?"

"Mr. Chang, I am just enjoying the pleasant evening." He chuckled bitterly. "And mourning the loss of my dear old mother." He took another puff from his cigarette. I let out a heavy sigh and ran my hand through my hair. This day was getting worse by the second.

"Johnny, come with me." I called out. "I can't just leave you here and I have lost enough of my students for one day, I don't want to lose anymore. Please, come with me."

Johnny flicked his cigarette away and sat up from his spot on the porch. He ran over to my window and smiled. "Can I smoke?"

"Ugh, fine, just get your ass in the car." I grunted as he hopped into the backseat of my minivan. "But roll down a damn window!"

"You got it."

(Outside Atlanta, Midnight)

Traffic was backing up to the point where no one was moving and everyone was sitting in lawn chairs outside their cars. Johnny was laying on the hood of my van smoking another cigarette and I was fiddling with my radio trying to see if there was anything on the news about Atlanta or South Carolina, but all I was getting was static.

"Shit." I decided to give up and shut my car off to save whatever gas I had left. That when an ear screeching noise started to echo all around us. Everyone, including me, looked up to see numerous fighter jets taking off towards, Atlanta.

We all followed the direction they were heading in and to all our horror, they started dropping bombs on the city. Flames erupted throughout the buildings and more soon followed.

"What the fuck!?" Johnny shouted from behind me. "How the fuck is this going to help anyone?"

"I guess they decided to try and wipe them all out at once." I sighed. "Disgusting, come on there is nothing we can do."

"Yeah…"

After the attack on Atlanta by our own military, Johnny and I decided to head out down towards, the southern border of Carolina. My van was running low on gas and we had no choice but to try for a shopping plaza for some gas.

I grunted in annoyance when I saw a bunch of cars together and other people sitting around.

"Great, looks like we're shit out of luck." I grunted.

"Well, maybe they're friendly, you'd never know?" Johnny reassured

"Don't be so sure." I warned. "One wrong move from here on out and we are all just cattle to the slaughter."

 **(A/N)**

 **Okay everyone chapter two, another intro chapter I know, but next chapter will be a little more actiony with more characters. I'd like to thank Sundered Heart for Marty Chang and Jack Conrad for Johnny Mckellen. These two are just the first of the cool characters I have in store for you. Till next time, take care.**

 **P.S. I re-edited this chapter, so i hope it is to everyone's liking.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Family is Who You Die For**

 **Authors Note: Okay, first of all I am sooooo sorry for the long delay. I had to right down everyone's key features so I don't always have to read through my iPhone or computer and then with the holidays picking up and then my job draining me all I want to do is sit down and binge something on Netflix or play something on the Xbox. Anyways, I am hoping to update more frequently and weekly. So here is another intro chapter, just to give you all a little something. I hope you enjoy it! These characters belong to helenGet.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

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(Eliza Nixon POV)

It was another busy day me as I sorted through my last stack of papers. It had something to do with some woman getting into a fight with some asshole for prank calling 911. What made it worse was that she was gay and a lot of people don't take her seriously, especially down in Atlanta.

A knock came to my door and I glanced at the clock on my desk. 2 P.M, that must be her now. "Come in."

When the door opened, my heart skipped a beat. My client was a beautiful young woman with long dark hair that went down to her shoulders and her deep blue eyes stared into my hazel ones.

She had a nice build to her too, not to muscular, but not to scrawny either. Shame on me for gawking at her through her blue paramedic shirt and black skinny jeans.

"Ms. Nixon, right?" I stuttered. I held my hand out for her to shake and when he took it I felt like it would shatter from her grip.

"Just, Ann." She said before sitting down in one of the two chairs in front of my desk.

"Okay, so you have an assault charge against you." I said sitting down in my chair. "What exactly happened?"

"I was riding with my partner around eight in the evening when we got a call about someone dying at an apartment." She explained. "We take off, sirens blaring and everything. When we got there, there was a block party going on and no one was dead or dying. I felt a beer can tossed at the back of my head and some little jackass is laughing while holding a cell phone. He says what a fucking dumbass I am and when he spotted my dog tags he started going on about how dykes ruined the army, or some bullshit."

"Did he know you were gay?" I asked.

"No, but that doesn't matter, does it?" I shook my head.

"No, he made a bogus call to the police, he assaulted you with that beer can and on top of that you are an army veteran and all you did was knock him out cold. This case will be a slam dunk."

"I don't know, not that I am ashamed, but a lot of people don't take girls like me seriously." She chuckled.

"Well, you happened to be represented by only gay lawyer in this neck of the woods, so I think you may have a chance." I smiled. She looked up at me surprised.

"So, is that why you wear your hair like that?" She gestured to my short spiky blonde hair. I was feeling a little self-conscious, until smiled. It looks nice. I smiled back and thanked her, before getting back to the matter at hand.

"Look, we'll be fine, let's talk about this more tomorrow."

"How about tonight, over drinks?" She smiled mischievously. I could only glare at her curiously. The smart thing to do was to keep it professional and tell her no, but dumb thing I did was to tell her yes and walk out with her to my car.

And I never once regretted it.

(Ann Nixon's POV two years later)

I awoke in bed with Eliza curled up into me. I smile and wrap my hand around hers, our wedding bands shining in the morning sun. I was still really nervous about today. We have talked about it for a while, but it was finally happening.

We were adopting a baby.

I buried my nose into the crook of my wife's neck and inhaled her beautiful scent to calm me down. I must have woken her up, because I felt her hand squeezing mine very tight and reassuringly.

"Nervous?" She mumbled.

"Oh yeah." I sighed into her hair. "I've done some things and seen a whole hell of a lot, but being a parent was never one of those."

"I think we'll be fine, just take another deep breath and relax." I did just that and my girl let out a soft giggle.

"Ticklish?" I giggled back.

"Easy soldier, we have to get ready in a little bit." She kissed my hand, before getting up from our bed and walking over to our bathroom.

After a shower and some breakfast, we made our way to the orphanage with our papers ready and my heart didn't stop pounding once. I haven't been this nervous since I was gearing up to propose to Eliza, but now I am about to take a child's life into my hands.

I am so screwed.

We finally get there and make with the how do's and I let my wife do all the talking while I just stood around looking like a dumbass. I excused myself to the bathroom while Eliza talked to the owner.

While I wandered around I saw all the children either playing outside or doing work in their class. They were good looking kids and I am sure anyone of them would be great for us to start our family, but the only real question is which one.

I was broken from my train of thought when I heard the sharp hiss of an inhaler and the small coughs of a young girl. I walked around the corner of and walked into a small sitting room and I spotted a little girl with messy blonde hair. She could have been seven or eight from her size, but only she could know for certain.

I don't know why, but I was drawn to her weak cough and I wanted to know if she was okay.

"Hi." I said as gently as I could. She was startled and looked up at me with her light blue eyes. "Sorry, I just wanted to know if you were okay. I heard you coughing up a storm."

"I'm fine." She said shyly as she continued working on her paper I had just noticed. I noticed she had a math book next to her and she was writing down and solving the problems instantly, before working on the next one. She didn't even need a calculator.

"What are you working on?"

"Multiplications, mostly word problems." She explained a little calmer.

"Olivia is one of our top students," I turned to see the social worker and my wife standing at the doorway. "Or she would if she would participate in class."

"What do you mean?" Eliza asked her. The woman ushered her out of the room and nodded for me to follow. I looked back at Olivia and I gave her a small wave and a smile and she did the same, before returning to her work. I followed the two out and I listened to the woman as she explained Olivia's situation.

"Olivia, she was left at a hospital when she was born and she's been with us ever since." She explained, she looked worried with each word she said. "She suffers from asthma and it makes it difficult for her to participate in gym or recess."

"But why is she not attending class with the other students?" I asked her.

"She is a tad autistic. She gets extremely startled by loud noises and if she gets tease she just shuts down and breaks down for hours. So, we give her a separate class and she is very exceptional. She is always on time with her assignments and she is an enthusiastic reader. She loves a good book, but sadly I don't think anyone will adopt her."

"Why not?" Eliza asked with disappointed look on her face.

"Well, look at it from someone else's point of view. They want a young little girl to start their family, but they don't want the total responsibility of taking care of her. I mean how many people say they want an autistic child that breaks down from a little teasing and passes out after a little horseplay, it's terrible, but the truth."

"True, no one wants a gay daughter." I grunted.

"I didn't mean to offend, but it's just the way it is." She sighed. Eliza looked back into the room and I smiled as she just watched her work.

"Well, I grew up on a farm and my father always use to say that family is who you die for. If some asshole wants a perfect kid then they should make it their own damn self. That girl in the next room is perfect just the way she is."

"I agree, we'll take care of her together." I said with a confidence I haven't felt since I proposed to Eliza.

"Are you sure?"

Eliza looked at me and smiled, before taking my hand. "Positive."

And that is how we adopted Olivia Nixon into our family.

(Five years later)

"Mama, I'm ready." Olivia called out to me as I slipped on my blue shirt and paramedic jacket.

"I'm coming baby!"

It's been a bit of a rough time with Olivia, but after a year we got into a healthy rhythm with her. Due to her condition we thought it would be best if we homeschooled her and thanks to the teachers at the orphanage we didn't have to look far for a tutor.

Eliza was doing great with her law firm and I was doing a good job as a paramedic. Then after a day of work we would come home and have dinner, watch a movie with Olivia and put her to bed. On our day's off we would take her out hiking or horseback riding. We keep an inhaler on us at all times, but she is getting better, though she does have her off days. Sometimes she has an attack or she just gets really exhausted and we have to take her home, but we love her and we wouldn't trade her in for anything.

"Mama!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I giggled as I made my way out of the bed room and into our kitchen. I watched Eliza tie Olivia's hair into a ponytail and I smile at how much she has grown. She just turned thirteen and she is off to school, well more of a walk through or orientation day for kids just starting. She would be starting seventh grade soon, so that meant getting her own locker learn about her classes and hopefully make some friends.

What made it more special is that it was all her idea and we were so proud of her.

"Okay, do you have everything in your bag?" Eliza asked, she was so nervous for our girl.

Yes, mommy." She said as she fastened the straps of her Hello Kitty backpack.

"Okay, mama is going to take you to school and she will pick you up at three okay?"

"Yes, mommy." Oliva said with a roll of her eyes. I didn't blame her, Eliza has been freaking the hell out for over a week.

"Eliza, we have to go." I complained.

"Okay, bye baby!" She squealed as she hugged Olivia tight. We shared a quick kiss and we were finally out the door. We hop into my black Honda Civic and make our way to the school. I looked over at my girl and smile as she stares out the car window.

"Nervous?" I asked her. She looks at me and smiles.

"Nope." She pops the 'p' at the end and I giggle.

"That's my girl, but seriously if you get lightheaded or anything you call me." I explained. "I'll be there to come get you. Mommy, too."

"Ugh, she is more nervous than me."

"I know, but she is your mother and it's what she does. She just loves you." I smiled at her as we pull up to the school. "Here we are, kiddo." She reaches over and gives me a hug, before heading out. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mama."

She unbuckles herself and makes her way out the car and into the school. I wait until she is in and pull out of my paring space and make my way to work.

The day was very bizarre as we had multiple aggravated assault charges involving people being bitten. When me and my partner arrived at one scene we happened to see the cops dragging away a man who was snarling and biting at the cops dragging him away, but we quickly ignored him and moved over to the woman who was on the ground, bleeding from her throat.

We quickly got her on a stretcher and put pressure on the wound. The bite was more on the shoulder than her neck, so there was no need to worry about her windpipe, but the bite was starting to look green around the bite and a little black in the middle. I started to rig up and IV when she started to break out in a cold sweat.

"Jesus, what the hell did that guy have, she's fucking sweating and shaking!?" I snapped. My partner just shrugged.

"These fucking junkies, who knows?" He snapped as he bandaged her wound. "She looks like she is passing out though."

"I didn't give her anything yet." I looked down to see the woman with her eyes closed and I noticed her breathing had stopped as well as her pulse. "Oh shit!" I snapped as I tried to set up the defibrillator. I turned around and I jumped when the woman jumped up from her stretcher and started to bite at me.

"What the fuck?!" I shouted before feeling the whole ambulance being turned over, knocking us all around. I felt us finally land and the back door of the ambulance popped open shining light into the ambulance. My head was pounding after the crash and I can hear the faint sounds of gunfire and screaming coming from outside.

My vision cleared and I gasped when I saw the woman from before on top of my partner, chewing on his throat. She then turned to me, her eyes were white and her lips were shiny red with my partners blood, and she snarled at me.

She started to move towards me and without any hesitation I started to kick my boot into her face and into the wall over and over until it was a pulpy mess. I quickly stumbled out of the ambulance and out into the streets near the hospital.

There were cops all over the place shooting at anyone who was stumbling over to them. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but the hospital was close and I had my car keys on me. I had to make it to my car and head home, before getting my wife and child, no matter what.

(Eliza's POV)

I didn't know what the hell was going on. Out of nowhere that guy just fucking bit that bailiff right in his throat. I ran as fast as I could to my office and locked my door and even shoved my bookshelf and desk in front of it, which I crawled under for protection.

All I could hear for the past few hours were the sounds of gunfire and screams and those people snarling and chomping. I held my hands over my ears to block out the horrible sounds, until I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, causing me to jump and bump the underside of my desk.

I let out a small groan and rubbed the back of my head as I dug my phone out from my pocket. I saw that it was, Ann and I quickly answered it. "Ann, are you okay!?"

"Babe, it's fucking crazy out there!" She snapped. I could swear I heard the familiar clicks of her M9 pistol that she kept in the wall safe. "People are just losing their minds and eating each other!"

"I know I saw it happened to the bailiff out of nowhere." I snapped. "Have you gotten in touch with Olivia's school?"

"No, I'm at home packing and watching the news, they have check points all over and even a few near the school, hopefully they will be fine. Where are you?"

"I'm barricade in my office, but I'm heading over to the school right now!" I shouted in the phone.

"No, baby I-"

"Ann?" I looked at my phone and growled when I saw that the battery died. She could be on her way to the courthouse right now, but I told her that I was making my way to the school. She wasn't too far away. Ten minutes by car and twenty minutes from home. I would make it I had to make it. I took a deep breath and slowly crawled out from under my desk and started to push it and the bookcase out of the way.

It was dark outside and it was a lot quieter than before, so I would open the door, run out of the courthouse and make my way to my car and to Olivia's school. Once everything was cleared out, I held my hand on the door knob for the longest time before I finally tore it open and bolted out of the office and down the dark and horrific hallway.

I didn't take the time to acknowledge the bloodied corpses or the people gnawing on each other. I was almost to the stairway leading to the parking lot, when I felt something grab onto my ankle, causing me to trip and fall flat on my face.

I looked down and I started to panic when one of those people started to claw at my legs and bite my ankle. I let out a scream and started to kick it's face frantically, trying to get away. That's when my hand landed on something cold and hard. I looked down and saw an iron pipe lying on the floor.

I gripped it tight and with all of my strength I brought it down on it's skull hard. Its head let out a sickening pop as it let out a dying gurgle, falling dead on top of my legs. I quickly broke free and ran towards the stairs, swinging my pipe across the face of the bailiff, who I thought had died earlier.

My heels clicked with every step down the stairs and I finally made it to the parking lot, my new red BMW sat no less than twenty steps away with a few of those geeks between me and the car. I took off towards the car without a moment's hesitation and I cracked my pipe across a few faces and unlocked the driver side door and hopped in. I tossed the pipe on the passenger seat and fumbled with the key, before I finally got it in and started up the car.

I pulled out of my spot and I got the hell out of there. I drove for a few minutes, when I started to notice that the street lights and traffic lights started to go off one by one. This was getting bad. I also noticed that a lot of the checkpoints that Ann mentioned where abandoned, some of them were covered in blood and corpses.

I cruised down the street that led to Olivia's school when I felt my whole car spinning out of control. After a few seconds I slammed into a nearby wall and my head was bouncing all over the place. I groaned in pain as tried to open my door, but I was pinned against the wall, so I was made my way through the passenger side door, grabbing the pipe and my brief case.

I looked back at my car and I sighed when I saw the entire back of it torn off and a dump crashed into a nearby house. This is why I don't get nice things. Shaking off my crushing disappointment and crippling fear I make my way to my daughter's school. It didn't take me too long and thanks to the cops surrounding the area, they provided an escort and I was on the front steps of the school and led to the gymnasium by one of the cops.

I looked around the gym frantically, before spotting my little girls Hello Kitty bookbag.

"Olivia!" I shouted as I ran over to her past the teachers and parents.

"Mommy!"

I scooped her up in my arms and held her tight to me. I have never felt more relieved in my life. I set her down and fixed her messy blonde hair. "Have you heard from, Mama?"

"Yes, she called me and said she was on her way." She said. "I tried calling back, but she hasn't answered at all."

"She's on her way, I know she is." I reassured her, but after what just happened to me I was not so sure. I could only pray that she was okay.

I jumped when I started to hear gunfire in the hallways. Everyone else started to panic as well and I didn't know what was happening. I held my daughter behind me and I started to undo the combination to my case to get my gun, but the lock was busted, so I couldn't open it.

I gripped my pipe tight, ready to kill whatever was on the side of the doors, but they soon burst open and two people were now trying to barricade the doors. One was the cop from before and the other was my wife."

"Ann/Mama!" Olivia and I shouted.

The cop next to Ann was bleeding out of his left arm and they were both struggling to keep the door closed. One of those geeks broke through the glass window and started to claw at Ann. I rushed in with my pipe and I stabbed the end of it through the broken window and into the eye socket of one of those things, but there were more to come.

Soon, the hinges started to break away and the door collapsed on top of the cop. Ann quickly grabbed the shotgun that he had dropped and to my shock and horror she aimed her brown M9 pistol at the cop and fired a round into his head.

"RUN!" She shouted as she holstered her pistol and grabbed Olivia. I followed behind them as everyone else scattered around in a mad panic and we made our way out of the gym and into the parking lot.

"Ann, what the hell is happening?"

"I don't know," She said as she opened the back door of her Honda and set Olivia inside the back seat. "After the phones went down I went straight to Olivia's school. I knew you would too, you've been worried about her going to school for weeks. We're is your car?"

"I got hit a mile back, tore the back of it clean off." I grunted.

"As long as we're all okay, that's what matters." Ann sighed. "We have to get out of the city, those things followed me and a few other cops from there I am sure of it."

"Okay, let's go."

We hopped in and Ann drove us all out of the parking lot and Atlanta.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: So That's Me**

 **Authors Note: Okay, I am hoping to give everyone's character a bit of an introduction this chapter. I hope I have everyone and included as much as I could, not too much, but enough. Also, be ready, in case you forgot this is the walking dead and anyone could go at any second.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

* * *

 **(No One's POV)**

Johnny and Marty left the van parked near the abandoned pet shop, the only place that had an open space for a car and they slowly approached the group of people near the diner. Marty gripped the handle of his bat, but he kept it to his side as Johnny had his hands in his jeans and kept his right hand gripped tightly around his switchblade.

The first two people they came across was a young woman with long brown hair that was tied in a ponytail and a young girl with short dirty blonde hair sitting in some lawn chairs. The older woman looked to be around twenty-four while the girl looked eighteen. They both jumped when the two men approached them. The woman gripped her machete while the girl pulled out a silver switchblade.

Johnny pulled out his own switchblade, but Marty stood between the two. "We don't want to start a fight, we just wanted to find some gas for our car!"

The woman stared at them with her green eyes, before releasing her machete and leaning back into her chair. "Yeah, well so is everyone else. The pumps are empty."

"Shit!" Johnny grunted as he tore off his hat to run his hand through his buzzed hair. Marty let out a deep sigh and he didn't know what to do. He looked back at the girls and shrugged.

"I'm Marty, Marty Chang," He introduced, before motioning to Johnny. "And this is my student, Johnny Mckellen."

The two girls looked them up and down before the woman spoke.

"I'm Ann Mac'Carty and this is my little sister Angela." She grunted. The girl smiled and waved.

"We shacked up here with a few other to get a few minutes of breathing room from those things and hopefully some gas, but like Ann said the pumps are tapped out and the cars are backed up for miles."

"Any of them happen to be cops or soldiers?" Marty asked.

They shook their heads with sorrow across their faces. Johnny let out a heavy sigh, they were on their own now. Marty shook his head and looked around at the small shopping plaza. There was the pet store they had parked near, a small gas hut, a quick stop grocery store and the diner. It was all boxed in and the lot was filled with different cars. There was no telling what the situation was with these people, but it was late at night, jets were dropping bombs on the city and those things were scattered and lurking around all over the place. They didn't have any choice, but to stay at the diner and hopefully get some sleep.

The two slowly walked into the diner, a small bell jingled when they opened the door and everyone inside tensed and looked up at the two. They both held their hands up defensively as some of the people had guns.

"Sorry, we were just passing through, same as you." Johnny stated. A lot of the people went back to either talking or eating, but a few of them kept their eyes trained on them.

"Don't worry about them, they're just scared." The two looked over to see a young woman with wavy brown hair and stunning blue eyes staring at them from a booth where she was slouching. She wore a grey double layered long sleeve top with black washed biker jeans and leather boots. The thing that caught their attention was the large black M16A2 assault rifle sitting on the table. She looked at it and smiled.

"It was my dad's," She stated. "Don't worry I know how to use it."

"Good, I'm Johnny and this is my teacher, Mr. Chang." Johnny introduced. She waved and introduced herself.

"I'm Leila, Leila Jane Watson." She introduced. "Sorry, the rest of these guys I don't know. No one has said anything since we all witnessed those bombs fall."

"Yeah, that was fucking crazy." Johnny stated. "We're looking for someone who might know what happened."

"They're trying to wipe out the whole bulk of these things." Another voice said. This time they were met with two sets of eyes. These two were very young, but looked mature enough to be adults. One was a sixteen-year-old Hispanic girl with shoulder length black hair and light brown eyes. The other who spoke earlier had short light brown hair that was swiped to the side. He looked a year older than the girl and glared at Marty and Johnny with his hazel eyes.

"This is why I never trusted the military. Sick fucks wouldn't think twice before nuking us." The boy snapped.

"My father served in the military you little shit!" Leila snapped, her hand reached out and gripped her rifle tightly. The boy slowly pulled out a Glock 17 out from under the table and set it carefully on the table top. The barrel of the gun pointed right at her.

"Ezra," The girl said reassuringly as she rubbed his hand which was still on the gun. "Sorry, he's just upset. I'm Mercedes and this is my boyfriend, Ezra."

"Nice to meet you." Marty smiled as he reached his hand out to shake hers, but before she could reach out, Ezra swatted his hand away.

"Nice to meet you, now fuck off, we don't have anything to say to you." Ezra snapped. Johnny looked at Mercedes and she gave him an apologetic shrug as Marty slowly backed away. Johnny muttered, 'fucker', under his breath and Marty placed an arm around his shoulder.

"I've dealt with angry young men like him before, just leave him with his girlfriend and hopefully she can calm him down." Leila scoffed.

"Yeah, how many of those students threatened you with handguns?" She asked. Marty sent her a stern glare.

"Just please do not aggravate him." Marty warned out of fear of what he would do with that gun, especially since there were children around. Most of the diner was filled with young people around Johnny's age and a few young adults. Some had families and friends while others were crept in a corner by themselves gripping their guns or knives.

Marty was a teacher for a long time and he had seen his fair share of lunchroom brawls. Anyone of these people could go off and armed with gun or a knife didn't make matters better. He was starting to think he was better off outside with the dead.

As he was just about to sit down, the Mac'Carty sisters stormed in and slammed the door behind them.

"There's someone out there!" Angela yelped. "He's got a big fucking truck and big fucking guns!"

Everyone started to panic at this as a few people got their guns ready. Ezra grabbed his Glock and his girlfriend and he led her to the back of the diner. Marty readied his bat as two men stomped towards the front door. They both looked to be around twenty-six, one had shaved black hair, wielding a Benelli M4 tactical shotgun and the other had messy black hair with a goatee, wielding a Mossberg 590 shotgun.

They both stepped out and cocked their guns.

"We don't want any trouble, so if you're planning on robbing us you'd better fuck off right now!" One of the men shouted.

"I'm not here to cause trouble, for Christ sake I'm a cop!" The man shouted from behind one of the cars. The two didn't let up and kept their guns pointed at the car he was hiding behind. From behind the car the man pulled his badge out from his pocket and set it on the ground, sliding it under the car towards their feet. One of the men picked it up and examined it, before looking back at the car.

"Come out slowly," The man said. "My friend here is gonna keep his gun on you, but I'll have mine lowered. You keep whatever guns you have pointed away from us or we'll blast your ass back to Atlanta, understand?"

"Sure thing!" He shouted as he held up his modified assault rifle over his head. The man looked to be twenty-nine years old Hispanic man with medium black taper hair. He wore a green bomber jacket over a grey shirt with jeans and combat boots and from the rifle held above his hand and the machine gun slung behind his hip the two could tell he meant business.

"Like I said I don't want any trouble, just a place to crash for the night." He explained. "I don't like being out in the open at night. These things start to get crazy at night, they start gathering and freaking out more than usual. It's a mess out there."

"Shit," The messy hair man said. He looked to his partner who merely shrugged. "I'm Paul, this is Eli."

The man smiled and nodded as he lowered his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. "I'm Jessie Cortez, but my friends call me, J.C."

The three stepped in and everyone tensed, some even grabbed at their guns. Paul stepped forward and spoke is piece. "Okay everyone, listen up. This is Jessie, he's gonna crash here and if you don't like it, well I don't give a rat's furry ass."

"Watch your mouth around my kid!" A woman shouted from the back of the diner.

"Why don't you-" Paul was cut off when Marty stepped up in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulder.

"Please, calm down." He said. "I understand that everyone has been through a lot for today, but can we please try and get through this night without any more violence or trouble amongst ourselves."

"I'm with him." Jessie said. "Those things did a pretty good job of fucking up our daily lives and we don't need to make it easy for them."

"How about we start over and properly introduce ourselves." Marty explained. Everyone gave him a strange look and he shrugged. "I helped with a few group exercises back at the high school I use to work at. It was a way for kids to get along. I'll start us off. My name is, Marty Chang, I teach high school physics and I have a wife and child all the way in South Carolina in army base. I hope. Anyone else wish to speak?"

Everyone remained quiet for a moment, before Jessie spoke out.

"Like Paul said I am, Jessie Cortez. I severed in the marines for a few terms, before joining the Atlanta police force and S.W.A.T team. I was out camping and hunting with some friends when I got the call to come in and assist with a city-wide evacuation, but I never made it there because I was stuck between rioters and these things. I'm just trying find a place to hold up."

"I'm Johnny Mckellen, I was a student in Mr. Chang's class and I killed my mother, nuff said." He said in a shaky voice as Marty wrapped and arm around his shoulder.

"He's with me." He said.

From their table, Mercedes wrapped her hand around her boyfriends and she decided to speak out.

"My name is Mercedes Lizel Muniz and this is my boyfriend Ezra Quinn Cowell." She introduced. "We've been together for a year and we were trying to make our way to Atlanta, hoping to find safety when we got stuck here."

"What about your parents?" Jessie asked.

"They're dead." Ezra stated sharply, putting an end to Mercedes story.

"I'm Leila Watson, I was studying to be a doctor and I was on my way to visit my mother who was in the hospital when my mother called me, telling me that the hospital was under attack and I should get out of town. So…that's me."

"I'm Harper Rose Smith." A young feminine voice called out. She was wearing a black racer back tank top with a pair of blue skinny jeans and motorcycle boots. She was fidgeting with her fingers as she started talking. "I was living on my own for a few years now since my mom died and I cut school early only for this to happen, so that's me."

A small family sitting in a booth introduced themselves next.

"My name is Aaron Hannay," The older Hispanic man said. He then nodded to his wife a Caucasian woman and a young twelve-year-old girl. "This is my wife Olivia and my daughter Clara. We both worked as teachers and our daughter goes to school, obviously. I work as a mechanic for some extra cash. In fact, that is what I was doing when I started seeing people eating each other. We are just hoping to find a place to wait this whole thing out."

"Wait this out?" Ezra asked, nobody missed the skepticism in his voice.

"Yeah, you know for a cure, isn't that why you're going to, Atlanta?" Olivia asked. Ezra rolled his eyes as a shaky voice started to speak.

"I-I'm Clary Evans." The nineteen-year-old girl said as she twisted a strand of her blonde hair around her pointer finger. She had blood on her white shirt and judging from her personality, everyone could assume that blood belonged to someone who was important to her or someone who wasn't. "I was at home sleeping when my brother started shooting at something from downstairs…I went down and my parents were…being eaten. Jared, we packed up and left right away, but we got held up in traffic and then the bombs fell and before I could do anything I was knocked down and trampled by the mob of people. I woke up and I was alone…so that's me." She wrapped her arm around her legs and curled up in a fetal position in her booth. Her right hand gripping a bowie knife.

"I'm Elizabeth Walsh, I work in the E.R." A young woman in scrubs said as she wrapped her brown hair into a ponytail. She said down in a chair and started to scratch the ears of her two-year-old black Labrador. "And this is, Apollo. I was walking him when this shit went down, so I loaded us up in our car and got us the hell out of, Atlanta."

"I am Victoria Kallen," A Japanese woman said with shiny red hair, tied in a ponytail. "I was studying to be a nurse. I worked at Hot Topic and I was vacationing with some friends when this happened." She shrugged.

"I'm Eli," The man from earlier said as he poured himself a glass of scotch. "I work as a bartender, I'm from Macon and I was on my way home from work when this shit happened. It was a bit of trouble getting here, but my shotgun here helped me get through it all." He chuckled, patting his shotgun.

"Okay, I'll go next, I am Ann Mac'Carty and this is my sister, Angela. We're from Mexico and our parents died a few years ago. We were planning on heading to Mexico to see if we could find what little family we have left."

"Good, now is there anyone else?" Marty asked.

"I'll go next," A young Indian woman said as she ran a hand through her long black hair. "My name is, Evangeine Bawne, but my friends call me, Evan. I am from India, but I came here to go to school for my degree in electronics engineering. I was out shopping when I spotted some folks…eating each other. I went back to my dorm room and packed up with plans to get to a safe zone in Atlanta, but I had to practice my batting first." She chuckled sheepishly as she held up her metal softball bat. Her face turned red when no one laughed and she cleared her throat before continuing her story. "So, one of my classmates gave me a ride out of town and we were heading to Atlanta when those jets started bombing the city, so with nowhere left to go we just headed here."

"What happened to your roommate?" Clary mumbled from the next booth.

Evan let out a heavy sigh and she reached into her tool box and pulled out a, Glock-17 pistol.

"I saw a Geek heading towards me, I panicked and started wailing on him and I noticed his gun was still holstered, so while I busied myself trying to take off his gun my friend got bit and…well we saw what happens when you get bit. She didn't want that…she asked for the gun. So, that's me."

"I'm Ann Nixon," Another voice called. Everyone looked at the small family huddled together in the booth as the woman sat at the edge of her seat with the butt of her Remington 870 police magnum rested on the floor next to her combat boots. "This is my wife Eliza and our daughter Olivia. I'm an EMT and Eliza was a lawyer. Olivia over there was getting ready to start school when this bullshit happened. It wasn't easy, but we made it here, before those bombs fell."

Marty looked at the other woman in her dark black suit, cradling her thirteen-year-old daughter. He gave her a nod and a small wave, which she returned, before looking back at the group. "Anyone else?"

Marty acted like he was asking no one in particular, but he was casually glaring at Paul, who just sat at the counter with his back turned to the group. Paul could feel eyes on him and he let out an annoyed groan and finally spoke.

"I am, Paul," He grunted. "I worked at a grocery store, I had hoped to go to trade school for plumbing, my mom is dead, my uncle is dead and his shotgun is the only thing I have left to remember him by."

"Well, I like to think we are better off than how we were before It was nice meeting everyone." Marty smiled as he sat down at one of the tables. "Maybe we can get through the evening without any more issues."

"Oh, shit!" Johnny snapped as he pointed outside. Everyone looked outside and they could see the faint image of three walkers lurking around.

Paul was one of the first ones out the door, shotgun in hand as Jessie followed him outside with a bowie knife in hand. Leila had her double edge fighters dagger ready and the three proceeded towards the three walking corpses while everyone else had their weapons ready.

Paul approached the first walker and he raised his shotgun and swiped the butt of the gun across it's face, knocking it down on the ground. He the pulled out a small metal switchblade from his belt and placed his foot on its throat, pinning it to the ground and plunging the blade in between its eyes killing it.

Jessie ran towards the other one and with the blade held upside down, he plunged the blade into the center of its skull while Leila managed to stick her dagger into last ones left temple.

Jessie scanned the area to make sure that no more were lurking around as Ezra stomped out of the diner, dragging Mercedes by her wrist towards his red Ford Mustang. Jessie was confused.

"Whoa, where are you going?!" He snapped. Ezra pulled out his Glock, but he kept it at his side as a warning.

"Back off, we are leaving before more of those things come back." He snapped.

"Where are you going to go, those things get agitated at night and it's pitch black out!" Leila snapped as she holstered her dagger. "Then there's the fact that you don't have any food or water, your ride is low on gas and you two looked like you were passing out before those walkers came in. For a guy who cares about his girlfriend, you sure don't think before acting."

"Oh, and sitting here with group of assholes with guns and itchy trigger fingers sounds so appealing!" Ezra shot back.

"Excuse me," Marty spoke up from the doorway. "But everyone in there is just an average joe trying to survive. Just like you two."

"Let him go," Paul shouted from his spot by the walker. Everyone watched him as he dug through its pockets and to his surprise he found a shotgun shell and few nine-millimeter rounds. "If the walkers don't get him then the convicts will."

"Convicts?" Mercedes asked. He nodded.

"I was a few miles outside of town when those bikers started cruising around the cars." He explained.

"The Proctors?" Jessie asked, Paul nodded.

"There was a prison bus stuck in traffic with us and I guess they must have had a few of their boys on board, because they started shooting the shit out of the bus." Paul explained while approaching the couple. "The inmates scattered out, some of them had the guard's guns and then they started robbing the people around me."

"Did they try to rob you?" Marty asked.

"Oh yeah, but they soon regretted it." Paul chuckled as he rested his shotgun on his shoulder. "But I only got one of them, before speeding off."

"You think more are out there?" Ezra asked.

"Them and a few hundred killers, thieves and rapist." He said. "Not a lot of people are sad to see the world go to hell you know."

"He's right, so if you want to be a lone wolf and risk your girl's safety, then by all means, if not then get your ass inside and shut up." Jessie warned. Ezra glared at Jessie for a moment, before taking his girls hand and taking her back inside.

Paul walked past him and handed him the bullets for his pistol and Ezra took them as he went back inside. Jessie looked at the entrance and pondered over what he was going to do.

"Okay, the who plaza is fenced off, so all we have to do is close and lock the gate, maybe even park a few of the dumpsters in front of it. Then we can figure out our next move."

"Everyone is willing to share their food and Angela has offered to cook whatever the diner has left." Marty explained.

"Okay then," Jessie said as he approached the gate. "Let's get this place fortified really quick and get some food in us and hopefully some sleep. Then tomorrow we can figure out what to do next."

Everyone did as they were told as Jessie and Paul fastened the lock and chain around the gates and to their fortune is was a pad lock with the key still inside and as for the food, the Hamay's gave the group some sandwiches and Angela made some pancakes for everyone. It was instant mix with a little water, but with everything that has happened it was the best meal anyone has ever had.

Despite how they all met, and even though they were still strangers they were all glad to have each other.

 **(A/N)**

 **So, a bit rushed for some characters, but that is only because I don't want to pour too much exposition on you guys. I want to build up and let these characters explain themselves for their actions. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and more is on the way.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Working Together, Or Dying Alone**

 **Authors Note: Thank you all for your support and feedback. This is going to be a very entertaining chapter for sure. Now that we have introduced everyone we can see how they work together and grow together as friends or at the very least a team.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.**

 **(Mercedes POV, one week ago, Milton Georgia)**

* * *

 _I sat in the passenger seat of Ezra's brand-new cherry red Ford Mustang a block away from my house. Ezra's neglectful father had bought it for him if he promised to stay out of trouble with the police for a while. Ezra never said much about his father to me, not because he ran out on him, but because he was a workaholic doctor who probably never even had a single conversation with his son in his entire life._

 _Still, it is a nice car._

 _My parents were not really different from Ezra's, only they do nothing but meddle in my life. They tell me how to dress, how to act in school and who I can hang out with, which is no one, because everyone is a negative influence on me. Hell, they would kill me if they found out I was dating a rouge like, Ezra._

 _He was a rude, angry and violent person, but what people didn't see was what I was patient enough to see. That he was alone and unwanted, just like me. He didn't like anyone, because the kids in high school thought he was a spoiled doctor's boy and nobody liked me because they didn't know my parents forbid me from staying out after school or hanging out at someone else's house._

 _We were alone, but we had each other._

" _What are you thinking about?" He asked me, breaking me from my thoughts. I shook my head and leaned over to press a soft kiss on his lips._

" _Just thinking about how lucky I am to have found you." She giggled._

" _You found me, remember?" He asked me. He was right, because when we first met he wanted nothing to do with me. He was so quick to affiliate me with everyone else at school, that he didn't even give me a chance to befriend him. It took a month and being forced to be partners in class for him to finally admit he was attracted to me and despite my parent's strict demands forbidding me to date, I never once regretted being with him._

" _You're right, which is why we have these." I said as I twirled my silver promise ring around my ring finger with the word, 'Forever', engraved on it. He had a matching one as well._

" _Forever and ever." He smiled as he kissed me back. This continued for another moment, before I pulled away and reached into the back seat to grab my bag._

" _I've got to go." I whispered. "My parents will get pissed if I am out to late."_

 _He let out an aggravated sigh as he turned to place both hands on the steering wheel. I knew he hated the thought of my parents being made at me for the pettiest of reasons, but it was just the way they were. I still couldn't wait for the day I turned eighteen, so I could just be with him whenever I wanted, but that was still two years away._

 _I finally said goodbye to him and hopped out of his car and walked the rest of the way home. I walked up to my front door and opened it up to walk in on my parents standing before me and they looked pissed._

" _What's going on?" I asked them. My mother said nothing and simply pulled out a failed pregnancy test from her pocket._

' _Shit!'_

" _What in the hell is this," My mother snapped, she didn't even give me a chance to say anything. "Have you been seeing someone?"_

" _Yes, but it only happened once. I missed my period and I didn't want to go to you guys because I knew you'd freak out like this. I bought it, took it and it was negative."_

" _And you think that makes up for your mistake?" My mother snapped._

' _The only mistake I made was throwing it out in the bathroom trashcan.'_

" _Look, I met a boy, he is my boyfriend and we have been together for a few months now. I finally felt comfortable enough to-"_

" _I don't want to hear it!" My father finally snapped. "I don't care who you have been seeing or what bastard you could have had. We would have had it removed regardless."_

 _That struck me like a knife in my heart. How could he say something like that about the child I could have had, I didn't even have a say._

" _To avoid anymore embarrassments, you will end your relationship and go to a private school, starting next week." My father commanded. I was close to hyperventilating as I constantly opened and closed my fist._

" _No…" I whispered through my teeth. He didn't even flinch, but I stood my ground. "First, I am not a fucking dog I am a fucking person. Second, I can see whoever I want, love whoever I want and fuck whoever I want and finally if I ever do get pregnant I will have my fucking baby and if you think for a second I will get rid of it you will be gone before the baby!"_

 _That last remark earned me a hard smack across my face, causing me to fall to the ground and my bag to spill open. Amongst the contents of my bag was a picture Ezra and myself smiling and holding each other._

 _My mother picked it up and the look of disappointment only grew worse than before. "Ezra Cowell, that explains the brash language and disrespecting attitude. Of all the people you had sell your body to the biggest failure in this town?"_

" _You are forbidden to see him, is that understood young lady!" My father shouted. I was furious, so furious that I snatched the photo out from my mother's hand and shoved my father back._

" _Go fuck yourselves!" I shouted before storming up to my room, tears poured down my face as I slammed my door and locked it. I even pushed my dresser in front of it to keep both of them out. I was a wreak._

 _I sat on my bed for an hour, occasionally pulling out my mirror to stare at the red bruise on the right side of my face. I couldn't even believe my parents would act like that. They have always been super protective of my life, but this was not protecting, this was controlling. I would never give up my child accident or otherwise._

 _I would never allow them to chose my lover or dictate my life anymore. I waited until midnight until I decided to sneak out through my bedroom window and made my way to Ezra's house. I texted him beforehand and we met outside his house. He was sitting on the hood of his car when he spotted me coming up the driveway. His eyes quickly found the bruise on my face and he looked furious._

" _What happened?" He asked me in a low, but fierce tone._

 _I told him about my pregnancy test and how it came up negative, but my parents didn't care and told me that I pretty much have no say in my life. He didn't like that at all._

" _So, your father struck you for protecting a child that you didn't even have?" Ezra asked._

" _Yes, I'm telling you they are both fucking crazy. I can't take it anymore." I whimpered pathetically. "I don't know what to do."_

" _We'll leave." He said. I looked up at him confused. "We'll leave right now and we won't look back. We can move to another town, live a simple life and have all the kids that we want."_

" _I don't know that seems to be a big step." I muttered. I felt his hand on my shoulder as he gently started to stroke my back._

" _Your parents were terrible to you before, if you go back now they will have you wearing a fucking shock collar around your neck or a tracking chip in your skull. You will never be free from them."_

" _And what about your parents?"_

" _My mother left when I was a kid, my sister gave up on me when I was one and couldn't give a shit about me and my father doesn't even know I exist." He explained causally. "Let's just get in my car and go."_

" _Hmm, when do we leave?"_

" _Right now."_

 _And that was it. We pack up some clothes, I had to steal some from his sister to avoid going back home and Ezra stole a lot of cash from his father and stole a couple of his Rolex's to pawn. Then like that we were gone, only instead of finding paradise we both exchanged one hell for another._

(Present, No one's POV)

Mercedes woke up in her booth with Ezra on the other side of the table. She looked around to see everyone was already up and the ones who weren't were just sitting around silently. She heard some bickering over by the entrance and was shocked to see it open but Jessie, Marty and Johnny were right outside talking.

"I understand your concerns, Mr. Chang, but I came from that direction last night. It's going to take a day or two in order to clear out the wreckage, not to mention the geeks surrounding it." Jessie tried to explained, but Marty did not care.

"My wife and son were vacationing down in Carolina and my wife said that they were being escorted to Fort Jackson. I have to make it there one way or another!"

"I understand, but it's like we told that kid last night," Jessie started listing off the reasons why leaving now was not option. "No gas, no food, bad elements all around us that want to kill us and you will be all alone. Does any of that sound good?"

"No, but I can't call her, she is alone with my son and who says that those soldiers aren't the same ones who bombed Atlanta?" Marty shot back.

"He's right," Johnny agreed. "They're scared and they have guns. If they even feel like someone is bit there is no telling what they will do."

"Which is why I need to go to Fort Jackson, right now." Marty explained.

"I think I might have a way to help you get in contact with your family." Jessie explained. Marty was all ears. "There's an outdoor store a few miles from here, back the way we came. The store is owned by an old Vietnam vet by the name of, Reggie Otis. He pretty much lives at that store and he has a working radio frequency. If we can get into his office then we can get in contact with Fort Jackson."

"You can work it?" Marty asked.

"Of course, we just need to get some back up to come with us." Jessie explained. Marty was confused as Jessie looked towards the diner.

"Them?" Johnny snapped. "You can't be serious."

"Hey I can only do so much by myself." Jessie explained. "And besides, they seem tough enough to help us."

"But will they help us?" Marty asked. "I mean I tried to calm everyone down last night, but I don't think anyone is ready to just go out of their way to help us."

"Don't be so sure." Jessie stated. "You managed to get everyone to open up and share a meal last night."

"Sharing some chips and sandwiches is one thing, but going off to fight undead corpses and possible convicts is not going to happen." Marty sighed. "There isn't anything in it for them."

"Hey, if it wasn't hit to hard the store should have some guns and ammo just lying around." Jessie said. "Not to mention food and other supplies."

"Ugh, it could be worth a shot." Marty sighed as he straightened his hair and walked into the diner. He grabbed his baseball bat from the table and started knocking it against the table top to get everyone's attention.

"Hello everyone," He called out. "I-I…ugh, I need your help. Jessie said that he has a way for me to contact my family at a camping store a few miles from here. He also said that there may be supplies there for us to and since things don't look like they will get any better we could use some outdoor supplies like tents and sleeping bags. I just want to know if anyone would…want to go there with me."

He wasn't surprised to see the lack of hands going up. A lot of these people had families to look after and some of them were just scared kids.

"I'll go with you." Paul said as he grabbed his shotgun. "I'm gonna need more shells for my shotgun."

"I'll go too," Eli said as he grabbed his things as well. "I wouldn't feel comfortable letting a teacher and a kid go off in the wilderness alone."

"I'll be going with them, too." Jessie said. "Okay, so that's Paul, Eli, Johnny and myself. Anyone else want to lend a helping hand?"

"I'll go." Ann Nixon said from her table as she loaded some bullets into the magazine for her M9 pistol. Jessie watched as Ann's daughter, Olivia, grabbed her by the wrist. Ann placed a reassuring hand on hers and kissed the top of her head.

"Are you sure?" Marty asked. "You should stay with your family.

Ann loaded the clip into her pistol, before sliding it into her leg holster grabbing her shotgun.

"This shotgun here belonged to a cop who helped me reach my family. He died right when I found her, so I told myself if anyone is ever in the same boat as me then I would help them." Marty smiled at her and she shrugged in response. "Plus, I only have two shells left in this thing, so I could use some more ammo."

"Okay, I think that will be good. I don't want to put you people in anymore of a risk." Jessie said.

"What should the rest of us do?" Leila asked.

"We'll if any of you are feeling brave, maybe you can go out and scavenge some supplies from the cars down the highway. Before I came here there were a lot of cars piled up and some of them could have gas and other things like snacks, blankets and clothes. Also, if you could try and move the cars out of the way that would defiantly help us if we need to get out of here in a hurry."

"I think we can manage that." Leila nodded as she looked towards everyone. "Okay folks, I like sitting around safe and sound as much as the next guy, but we all came here for gas and food and by the look of things we need to get them ourselves from now on. So, who wants to volunteer for that?"

"Screw it, I'll go." Evangeline said as she grabbed her baseball bat. "It's like you said we need supplies and they aren't going to come to us."

"I'll go too." Aaron said. "I can get us some spare parts for our cars."

"I guess I'll go too." Elizabeth said as she scratched behind her dog's ears. "Apollo growls viciously every time those things come close. Plus, if anyone gets hurt I can help out in a pinch."

"Good, anyone else?" Leila asked.

"Yeah, I'll go." Victoria announced. "I'm getting hungry and since cannibalism is frowned upon at the moment I am better off looking for saltines." She let out a small giggle, but no one was in the mood for jokes. She waved it off and just grabbed her crowbar and her satchel.

"Okay, and the rest of you guys will hold down the fort, sound good?" Leila said.

"Sounds dandy." Ezra said as he pulled out his Glock and kicked his feet up on the table.

"Okay everyone, get your things together and get ready in five." Jessie announced as he grabbed his rifle and machine gun.

Everyone else got ready as well and prepared for their assigned duty. Victoria grabbed her first aid kit from her Chevrolet and gave it to Elizabeth who would know how to use it better in case of an emergency. Ann reassured her wife and daughter she would be fine as did Aaron, who had to reassure his daughter more than his wife.

Jessie was unsure about leaving their temporary headquarters under the guard of Ezra. He looked around at the remaining group that was staying behind. There was his girlfriend Mercedes, the kids Harper and Clary, the Mac'Carty sisters, Arron's wife and daughter along with Ann's wife and daughter. Jessie rubbed the back of his head and walked over to her.

"Hi, Eliza, right?" He asked her as she looked up from her daughter.

"Yes." She nodded, Jessie eyed her hand gripping the pipe she had chosen as her weapon. "Jessie, right."

"Look, I know we all just met, but seeing as how you are going to be the only rational adult around here, besides Aaron's wife, but from what you and Ann told us you got into a bit of a scrap with those things and you can hold your own."

"Yes, I will do whatever it takes to protect my wife and daughter." She said with her arm wrapped around her daughter. "Why?"

"Let's just say I need someone who isn't afraid to do what needs to get done." Jessie sighed. "Look, between these things, those convicts running around and Ezra over there I need someone to keep an eye on our headquarters here."

"I can do that." She said as he reached into her brief case and pulled out a small, black Walther PPK. "I'll hold down the fort while you guys get our goodies."

"Good deal."

(!)

After everyone gathered their gear and weapons, Jessie had Eliza lock up the fence behind them while they were gone. Jessie and Marty led their group to the outdoor supply store while Leila led her group to the highway.

Marty had his bat in his right hand and the army switchblade in his left. His stomach was upset the whole walk over. He looked over to Paul, Eli and Ann. The three of them had their shotguns while Jessie had his automatic rifle. Johnny just had his switchblade and they were walking down the road to a store that was filled with god knows how many walkers and possibly those convicts Paul mentioned.

And this was all for supplies that may or may not even be there, for a radio that may or may not work to speak to soldiers at a base that may or may not have left. This was a train wreck for him, he wouldn't lose this feeling until Jessie got that radio to work.

Ann and Paul were walking behind the group covering the rear as they continued down the sunbathed street. Paul was getting anxious himself, so he decided to start up a conversation.

"So, why are you really helping, Marty?" He asked her.

"I wasn't lying about the cop." She stated. "But I do need some ammo, otherwise this thing is just a paperweight."

"You still got a handgun." He shrugged as he shouldered his shotgun.

"Yeah, but I only have a clip and a half left for my piece. I'm gonna need all the rounds I can carry if I want to protect my family."

"I don't blame you, but what are the odds of this whole radio thing working?" Paul asked. "I mean I have been camping out here once or twice and I have been to Otis's store, but a radio station just sounds a little far fetch."

"If I were Marty and my family was across the state I would do anything I could just to know if they were okay or die trying." Ann stated.

"I guess, but still if this doesn't work he's gonna be no different than a dog chasing his tail and we all just risked our lives for what, a few bullets and a bottle of water?"

"Hey, we don't have those luxuries anymore." Ann sighed. "Honestly the big reason that most of us are helping each other is to win points with one another, so we don't have to face this bullshit alone."

"Right, work together or die alone."

With nothing else to say the rest of the group made their way to the store and hopefully they wouldn't be risking their lives for nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Bonding Experience**

 **Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your support and your reviews I am glad you enjoyed the last chapter and the ones that came before. This chapter will feature a little more action and as the title says, bonding. I am hoping to give each of the characters a little more screen time this chapter and I hope that it is to their respective owners liking. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.**

* * *

 **(No One's POV)**

Jessie led Marty and the rest of the group towards Otis's Supply Shack in hopes of getting in contact with Fort Jackson and hopefully finding some supplies. Paul and Ann were at the rear of the group while Eli and Johnny kept to the middle of the group. Johnny had his switchblade in his right hand, but kept the blade sheathed while Eli walked with his shotgun resting on his shoulder.

"Hey, how much father to this shack?" Eli asked. Jessie turned and shrugged.

"Maybe another ten minutes. I don't know I've never walked there before." Jessie stated. "I did stop there a few days ago for some bullets. The place was still standing and well stocked. Hopefully the old bastard is still there and willing to lend us a hand."

"You were hunting, right?" Johnny asked. "You managed to get anything good?"

"Nah, I went up to a little secluded spot to wait for my friends, but I got the call as soon I got there and well…you know the rest."

"Yeah, I was heading home from work when this shit happened." Eli sighed. "All I wanted to do was chill out in front of the T.V. watch a little boxing with a glass of scotch. Instead I have to shoot through my own town, just to get to my truck."

"At least you still have your scotch." Johnny chuckled, patting the former bartender on the back. Eli chuckled as did Ann and Paul.

"To be honest I had those in my book bag when I left the bar. I bought those and some canned goodies on the ride home from work when this all happened."

"Do you always take your shotgun with you?" Jessie asked.

"I keep it with me at work and at home." He said, patting it admirably.

"Yeah, me too." She said as she patted her M9 that was still holstered at her hip.

The idle chatter went on for a little while longer before the group had finally approached the store. It was as big as a grocery store colored green with a big yellow sign and the lot had carts scattered all over with a few cars abandoned in the lot and a few walkers lurking around.

Jessie ran a hand down his face as that small feeling in the pit of his stomach started to churn uncomfortably. He knew he would eventually stumble across some of those things, but now the moment has come for him and a group of civilians to take on a bunch of reanimated corpses. He turned to the group and whispered his plan of attack.

"Okay, I've taken a few of these things head on before," He explained as he pulled out his bowie knife. "They are slow when they think they are alone and when they are in few numbers like they are now. So, we go in as quick as we can and we hit them as hard as we can, you guys got that?"

"Question," Eli whispered as he sarcastically waved his hand in the air. "Why don't we just shoot the bastards?"

"You want to waste what little ammo you have on a few geeks, then be my guest, but if what Paul said about those armed criminals in the area is true I would prefer to save our ammo for them."

"Okay, fine." Eli said as he pulled out a black kukri machete with a wooden handle. "Good thing I grabbed this from my truck."

Johnny readied his switchblade as did Marty along with having his bat handy. Paul had pulled out his machete as Ann unsheathed her black army knife.

Jessie quickly snuck up behind the closest one and he quickly grabbed it by the back of its shirt and stuck the blade through the back of its head. It let out a dying gurgle before falling to the ground dead.

Eli quickly rushed in as well and brought his blade down onto one of the walker's forehead. The attack killed it, but the blade was stuck in its head, causing Eli to struggle to get the blade out. This caused him to be vulnerable to a nearby walker that started to stagger towards him.

He gave the blade a strong pull, right when one of the walkers came up behind him. Marty quickly ran up to the corpse and swiped his bat across the side of its rotten skull. The monster fell to the ground growling and clawing at Marty, before the former teacher plunged his knife in its skull.

Johnny quickly pounced on the walker and he erratically stabbed his blade multiple times in its skull as black blood started splashing all over the ground and on Johnny's face.

Ann thrust her foot out and kicked a walker square in the chest, knocking it on the ground and finishing it off with a knife through its eye socket as Paul shoved a shopping cart into two of the last remaining walkers, knocking them down allowing him and Jessie to finish them off.

"Whew." Paul sighed as he looked around the at the fallen walkers. "Great teamwork everyone!"

"Yeah, but this was the outside, there is no telling how many are lurking around in the inside." Ann stated. Everyone was now staring into the dark and empty store. Marty could see a few faint images lurking inside and anyone of those things could easily be hiding behind a corner ready to sink their teeth into every one of his teammates.

"Okay, get ready and watch your feet." Jessie said, readying his machete. "I had a few close calls with these bastards nearly sinking their teeth into my ankle."

"Great…" Johnny sarcastically groaned as he stepped into the store. The only light source was the natural sunlight illuminating through the doors and it wasn't much. Using the flashlights that some of the group members were kind enough to lend, they slowly made their way through the store.

The store itself looked ransacked with its cases knocked over, its shelves cleared and the remaining products scattered on the floor. Jessie let out a heavy sigh and he slowly started to lead the group through the store.

"The old man has a generator in the back of the store. We need to get through the store and backroom in order to get to the caged off area where he keeps it. Once we get it on we can get to work on the scavenging and getting in contact with Fort Jackson."

"Okay, let's go." Marty said as everyone proceeded through the store.

Jessie shined his light through the store and spotted one walker lingering by the door and he quickly dispatched it, before opening the door. The area was fenced off from the woods and to his joy the generator was still there. He quickly checked it and he smiled when he saw that the gas gauge was full.

He quickly switched it on and revved the motor, after a few moments the generator started kicking and the store was lit up like a Christmas tree. When Jessie walked back inside he noticed that there were a few more walkers than the one he had killed by the door. He looked to everyone else and shrugged.

"Fuck it," He raised his rifle as Paul and Eli raised their shotguns and Ann pulled out her M9 pistol. "Make the shots count."

(!)

Leila held her father's rifle tightly as they approached the wreckage that Jessie had talked about. There were cars, trucks, busses and all sorts of vehicles crashed and overturned all over the place. Some of them were scorched from some sort of fire, meaning that both the gas and valuables went up in flames, but a lot of them looked abandoned and perfect for scavenging.

Leila looked at her group and let out a shaky breath.

"Okay then," She looked at her poorly equipped group of scavengers. "We don't have the weapons or people to help us with the cars or keep us safe and we are not going to be able to clear all this sunset, so find a car and get whatever you can. Check the insides first like the glove compartments and trunks as for the luggage if they have anything take it, but if it's just full of photo albums or clothes then just dump them, unless its socks or anything worth taking, then syphon the ride for gas. Got it?"

"Got it." Everyone stated.

"Good, I've got the rifle, so I will keep watch from the turned over R.V." Leila stated as she started to climb up the broken-down vehicle. "Take your time with the salvaging and be careful not to overlook anything. When your done searching the cars that are blocking the road, give me a holler and I'll come help you move them."

With that, everyone started to take off to their own little area on the road. They take their time and go through everything they can from the cars to the small handbags buried under the seats.

Most of them came up with nothing, Aaron helped syphon gas, he even showed the group how to do it without having to suck on the tube.

"It's really easy." Aaron stated as he prepared the tubes and the gas can. "First you insert the tube into the gas tank like you would normally do when you fill up a car and then you put the other end into the red gas can. Now, you take a shorter hose or tube and insert it with the other one and it doesn't have to be too deep, but just enough that it is in there and then you wrap a cloth around the nozzle and blow into the shorter hose like this." Aaron blew into the shorter hose and everyone watched as gasoline started flowing through the tube from the tank and to the can. "And that is it. Short and simple and no need for gas breath."

"What a shame," Evan said as she twirled her bat around. "And here I was thinking that we could all bond over a cup of gas."

"Ha…ha…ha." Elizabeth chuckled as she went over to search a nearby minivan. She managed to dig up a couple of candy bars and a pack of cigarettes in the glove compartment. Whoever owned it must have just ditched the car and took all of their valuables.

'Whatever,' she thought. She could give the candy to the children and the cigarettes to Johnny. She was getting ready to start syphoning the gas when she noticed something sticking out from the back of the van. It was the handle of a wooden baseball bat. The handle was wrapped in black tape and she wrapped her hand around the handle and gripped it tight as she lifted it up and examined it. It looked brand-new and it had a better reach than her hammer, it was no gun, but beggars can't be choosers. She picked up her hammer from the car seat and placed it in her bag as she proceeded to syphon gas from the van.

Evangeline and Victoria were searching a few nearby cars as well and they tried to keep each other calm by starting up a conversation.

"So, I was studying to be a nurse in San Francisco when a few of my friends decided to take a trip out here to Atlanta." Victoria explained as she grabbed a cooler and opened it up. She nearly gagged at the smell of what she assumed was sandwiches. Next to the plastic bags, now filled with moldy bread and meat was a few bottles of water. She removed the bottles before tossing the cooler onto the grassy plane between the roads. "Anyways, we decided on camping and took a trip out here to the more rural parts of Georgia and we were shopping for some stuff when this bullshit happened."

"You do a lot of camping?" Evangeline asked as she grabbed a box full of granola bars.

"Nah, we just see it as an excuse to go into the woods and get drunk." She chuckled as she started to go through the glove compartment. "What about you?"

"Yeah, sometimes, but I usually just hang out at home and play video games or watch Investigative Discovery." She stated. "I am a lonely little shut in."

"Nothing wrong with that." Victoria chuckled. "I more of a bookworm and romantic comedy girl, but gory games and violent homicides are just as fun."

"Could be worse, I could be wandering around drunk in the woods and wiping my ass with poison ivy." She chuckled back.

She finished rummaging through the van, but she noticed that Victoria hadn't made a noise since she made that remark about camping. She looked over to where Victoria was, but she was shocked to see that she was gone. Her satchel and crowbar were sitting in the back seat of the car she was searching.

She quickly ran around the car, but only made half way when she found Victoria crouched down next to the car with a gruff looking man holding a shiny Beretta cougar 8000. He had the barrel of the gun pressed tightly to her right temple and both Victoria and Evangeline didn't know what to do.

"Make a sound, she dies." The man said. She froze at what would happened to her friend. "Now, I hear you have been watching a lot of crime shows, you know who I am?"

"I think so…" Evangeline whispered. "Hank Kingston, a member of the Proctors."

"Smart girl, what else do you know about me?" He sneered as his lips curled up into a sadistic grin, revealing his yellow teeth. "Well, Kingston here has been a member of the Proctor's for ten years until he and a few of his friends decided to become Nomads. He said that he was doing it to escape his ex-wife, but it was really because he and his friends had shot up a gun buyback program in Atlanta. Last year a witness saw him in Macon and reported him and he was recently extradited back to Atlanta where he and his friends were charged with killing three cops and some civilians. He was sentenced to life, but that bus never made it there for obvious reasons." She finished as motioned to the ransacked cars.

"Ah, you heard I got out, did you?" Hank asked.

"More like your prison bus got stuck in traffic, before getting shot up by your gang, but yes I heard from a friend that you got out for bad behavior." Evangeline remarked in a shaky voice, she didn't know why she was making wise cracks, only that if she kept him talking maybe he Leila would spot him and get him to surrender.

She heard a click of a gun from behind her and that's when her heart finally sank and her nerves started to rattle. "Drop the bat, darling." A southern voice said. She let out a heavy breath she didn't know she was holding and released her bat, listening to the metallic object clunk on the ground.

"So, who told you about us?" Hank said. "Was it that dipshit with the white Chevy. I saw him with you guys earlier, he blew a few of my friends away and even took a shot at me. Not a nice guy."

She was ready to respond when she was violently shoved down onto the ground. She fell on her hands and knees and she looked behind her to see a man with a Five-seven pistol at her while the other man held a S&W 6904 holstered at his belt. That's when she remembered she had her Glock-17 holstered in the back of her pants.

She just needed to find the right time to pull it out and hopefully work up the nerve to use it.

"Well, he did say that you took a shot at him."

"Hey, dog eat dog world." He shrugged.

Suddenly, one of Hank's men was jumped by Apollo. The man screamed as the dog started to tear into his throat while the other man readied his gun and aimed it at the dog, but he never got a chance to fire as his brains flew out of his skull. Hank looked over his shoulder to see Leila, Aaron and Elizabeth ganging up behind him. Smoke was rising from the barrel of Leila's gun as she aimed it at Hank's head.

"Let her go!" She demanded, Hank merely chuckled.

"Darling, do you know who your pointing that gun at?"

Victoria used this distraction to her advantage and she quickly elbowed him in his right eye. This caused him to loosen his grip on her and she dived behind a nearby car shouting, "Shoot him!"

Leila was ready to shoot him, but right before she could shoot him, his whole chest started popping red all over as shots rang out. He fell in a messy heap and everyone looked over to see Evangeline pulling the trigger of her now empty gun.

Leila looked down at Hank who was gurgling blood. Despite the damage that Evangeline had done he was still alive. She drew her dagger and she struck him in the head as Victoria did the same with the other man that Apollo had attacked.

"You have a good dog." Evangeline chuckled as she lowered her gun. "He saved our asses." Leila was surprise at how calm she was. She slowly approached her and rested a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even flinch.

"Are you okay, Evangeline?" Leila asked, she nodded and holstered her gun before picking up her bat.

"I'm fine and call me, Evan."

"Okay, we should head back." Aaron spoke up. "The shooting could have alerted their friends and they could come looking."

"He's right, we'll regroup and try again tomorrow." Leila said as she grabbed the guns and picked through the bodies. Evan just shrugged and looked around.

"We could scavenge more cars, we have some more guns too, we can protect ourselves." She defended.

"Evan, you emptied twelve rounds into this man and you still didn't kill him," Leila shrugged. "Giving a bunch of guns to mechanics and doctors isn't going to make things safer. Let's go."

Evan just shrugged again and followed them back to the diner. She didn't see what the problem was, she could have scavenged for a few more hours. She may not have killed Hank, but she did shoot him, and the strangest thing is she didn't feel a thing.

She would be coming back tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: New Reality**

 **Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your feedback and support I am glad you all enjoyed it I can't wait to see what you think of this chapter. I hope I edited it properly this time. I know I make some grammar mistakes. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Also, I wanted to let you guys know that I am going on vacation next week, so it may be a while till my next update.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.**

* * *

While everyone went off and scavenged for supplies, Eliza Nixon stood guard for the diner to make sure that no one or nothing got inside. She wasn't entirely alone in this situation as she had Olivia Hannay and Ann Mac'Carty to back her up, but so far, she was the only one with the gun. The rest were just scared kids, despite their age. Rose was fifteen while Clary was nineteen, but they were still young girls who were still in shock at what had just happened.

Angela was eighteen but growing up with a sister like Ann has made her as tough as her sister and Eliza knew she wouldn't be getting help from Ezra, who was only looking out for himself and his girlfriend, so it was up to her to protect everyone.

It wasn't too bad to keep everyone busy. Angela cooked lunch for everyone while Mercedes kept the kids distracted with a game of Uno while Rose and Clary tried making small talk.

Eliza just stood outside of the diner with her Walther PPK in her right hand and her pipe in the left hand. It was around two in the afternoon when she saw something lingering around the front gate.

At first, she thought it was the two groups returning from their runs, but that turned out to be wrong when she saw the gate start to open. She was the one with the key to the lock, so she should be the only one to open it. She quickly peeked into the diner and whispered out to everyone.

"Everyone, hide now!" She whispered as Olivia and Ann started gathering the kids to take behind the counter. She quickly backed out of the diner and shut the door, before turning to the direction of the gates and running towards the entrance. She started to panic when she saw three men dressed like bikers and each of them had a blunt object. One was a skinny man with a softball bat, another was a big man with a sledge hammer and the last guy had long dirty blonde hair armed with a tire iron and a pair of bolt cutters.

She aimed her small handgun at trio and they all quickly held their hands up. The one with the cutters and tire iron let out a chuckle and looked her up and down.

"Nice outfit, darlin," The man said with a lick of his lips. "That suit there really clings to your every curve."

"And its remarks like that, that made me attracted to women." She shot back. The man's men let out small chuckles of their own.

"Rug muncher, go figure."

"Fuck you, now get the hell out of here." She warned him as she kept her gun aimed at them.

"Whoa, now why don't we tone it down for a minute." The man said in a reassuring voice. "My friends and I are just here looking for some food and gas do you have any to spare?"

"Does it look like we have anything?" She asked rhetorically. "We've been stranded for days."

"Hmm, who's car is that?" The man nodded over to the white Chevy Cruise that was parked over by the corner. Paul's car to be exact.

"Why does it matter?"

"That car belongs to a killer I'm afraid." The man said. "He killed a few of my friends for no good reason."

"That's funny, because he said that you tried to rob him at gun point."

"Look, we're just scavenging for supplies, so why don't you just put that gun down and we can work something out." He explained as he slowly stepped forward. Eliza, not taking any chances, pulled the trigger, but the only thing that came from her gun was a light clicking sound.

She forgot to turn the safety off.

The man didn't take any chances and he quickly swung his tire iron at her gun, sending it flying across the lot. Eliza let out a grunt and she quickly swung her pipe at the man, but he ducked beneath her attack and tackled her in the stomach and knocking them both on the ground.

The two struggled for a moment, before the man grabbed a hold of Eliza's pipe and started to press the shaft of the object on her throat, cutting off her breathing.

The big guy with the sledgehammer was smiling down at the two fighting, when he heard something running up behind him. He turned and his eyes widened when he saw Ann rushing towards him with her black machete. He quickly stepped out of the way of her attack, but he suffered a cut across his left shoulder.

He let out a deep hiss through his teeth, before gripping his sledge hammer and swinging it towards Ann. She jumped out of the way of his heavy swing and stumbled back on her ass giving him the chance to attack again. This time her sister Angela leaped in and stabbed him in the back of his shoulder with her switchblade. He let out another scream and turned to attack her, but Ann quickly got up off the ground and raised the tip of her machete to his back and with all her strength she rammed it through his heart.

He let out a choked scream before falling face first on the ground dead. The last man standing with his bat charged at Ann as she tried to pull out her machete from the corpse. He was closing in on her while the other man was coming close to strangling the life out of Eliza.

Right when Ann pulled out her machete, gunfire started echoing around them as the man was struck twice in the chest, before the final shot struck him in between the eyes. The man who was strangling Eliza watched his friend go down and he quickly threw his pipe away and reached into the back of his pants to pull out his Glock 19. He didn't get a chance to aim it as one last shot rang out and the mans brains flew through the back of his head and all over the pavement.

Eliza watched as some chunks got stuck in his hair and she quickly pushed his carcass off of her as she looked up to see who was doing the shooting. Ezra stood with his still smoking Glock 17 and stomped towards the man Ann had just killed, aimed his gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

"What the fuck?" Angela shouted as Ann wrapped an arm around her.

"What, he was still breathing." Ezra snapped. Ann shook her head.

"I stabbed him through the heart, trust me, he was dead!" She snapped.

"Okay, fine I imagined it, you're welcome by the way!" He snapped as he looked over to Eliza. "Great work protecting us, boss!" He smiled as he gave her the thumbs up.

"Screw you, you could have helped keep watch earlier if you felt so threatened!" Eliza snapped back.

"Oh, so sorry, but I thought the catatonic bitch with the knife and the red headed lassie who just hit puberty would have helped, but to my shock and horror they did absolutely nothing!" He wept as his face turned serious. "So, you'll forgive me for not trusting them with the safety of my girlfriend's life."

"Listen you littl-"

"Mommy!" Olivia screamed as she ran towards Eliza. Her young daughter caught her off guard when she collided into her, knocking the wind out of her as Oliva wrapped her arms around her mother tight. "Are you okay, that man looked like he was about to kill you!"

"I'm fine, baby." Eliza reassured, stroking her daughter's ponytail.

Olivia looked over at Ezra, who was being held my Mercedes and smiled.

"Thank you for saving her." She said sweetly.

Ezra said nothing and turned to leave, but he was blocked by Mercedes, who had a very stern look on her face. He shrugged his shoulders, oblivious as to what she wanted, but she nodded her head back over towards Eliza and Olivia. Ezra let out a heavy sigh and turned to the mother and daughter with a phony smile on his face.

"You're welcome, kiddo!" He said a cheery as he could. "Your mommy was very brave to try and protect us like that."

Ezra then turned to Mercedes and took her hand leading her back to the diner, while Mercedes flashed Olivia a smile and gave her a friendly wave.

Clary walks up to her with her bowie knife and Eliza pulls her daughter off of her, before kissing her on her forehead. "Honey, I need you to go with Clary while I help keep us safe, okay?"

"Okay, mommy." Olivia says as she walks away with Clary who places a reassuring hand on her back. Eliza walks over to where her gun flew and she picked it up off the ground as Ann pulls out a Smith and Wesson Model 29 from the shoulder holster of the big guy she just killed.

"You know how to use that?" She asked her.

"Yeah, my mother was a cop, she taught me out to use a gun." She said as she checked to see if it was loaded.

"Good, do me a favor and keep it pointed at the entrance. If you see anyone that isn't apart of our group, kill'em."

(!)

Back at the outdoor store, Jessie got the back up generator to work, giving the store enough power to light up the interior and hopefully the radio in Reggie's office. Paul and Jessie both approached the office while keeping their guns trained on the door. Jessie walked to the door slowly and carefully reached his left hand towards the door knob.

Marty and Eli backed them up as Jessie silently counted to three.

' _1…2…3!'_

He pushed the door open and everyone aimed their guns inside. Everyone quickly backed away from the doorway as they were met with a fowl smell. Jessie knew the smell all to well and he quickly adjusted and walked into the office to see the owner of the store sitting in his desk chair with his brains splattered all over the wall.

Everyone slowly stepped into the office with their noses buried in their shirts as they watched Jessie pick up a nearby note book.

"'To whoever finds my body, bury me, burn me, or leave the fucking door closed. I don't want to be biter chow', well tough break old man, but I don't think the walkers want anything to do with you." Jessie chuckled, setting the book back down on the desk. He spotted Paul crouched down near Reggie's right side and he watched him pick up the old mans pistol a Kimber Warrior 1911.

"Sweet piece." Paul chuckled as he started rummaging around the office looking for ammo and anything useful.

"Seriously, show some respect!" Jessie snapped.

"I am," Paul said. "I am respectfully looting this mans office for supplies, so I can hopefully last longer than he did."

"Asshole." Ann said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't you have a call to make?" Paul snapped back getting Marty's attention.

"Yes, please help me." He pleaded. "Where is the radio?"

"Over here," Jessie said, leading Marty over to a small radio station. The radio was a small CB Radio and Marty was starting to worry. He didn't know how this thing would work and if it did then how would they get in contact with anyone at Fort Jackson. There was no guarantee that they would even be listening for their call. When Marty heard the static whirring on the radio his heart started pounding fast and hard. "Hello, testing, testing…anyone broadcasting on this channel…My name is Jessie Cortez. Is there anyone out there on this frequency?"

Nothing but static. Marty was starting to worry.

"Is there anyone from Fort Jackson on this channel?" Jessie called out to anyone listening. There was nothing for a short while until a voice finally called out.

"…Hello," A voice rang out. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, yes, we are, are you from Fort Jackson?" Jessie called out.

"Yeah, I was stationed there, but we had to relocate down to Georgia. A few bitter and bitten got in and swarmed us. We only had enough time to evacuate a few families and some of our troops."

"Families, do you have anyone by the name of, Chang?" Jessie asked. "Where are you located?"

"We had to set our helicopter down in a ranch out in the rural parts of Georgia. It's a dude ranch called, Trippy's Dude Ranch."

"Trippy's, I went there once, that's near Macon." Jessie said. "What about the family, 'Chang' do you have anyone by that name?"

"I'm not sure, there aren't that many of us here. We ju-"

Both the message and the radio were cut off as power to the whole store went down.

"Shit, the generator must have been low on fuel." Jessie sighed before looking at Marty. "Sorry, Marty."

"Don't be, now I know that Fort Jackson is abandoned and my wife and son may be at this ranch."

"Sounds like there might be more people and some soldiers there too. It could be a better safe haven than that plaza we're all shacked up in."

"We better head back there now, it is starting to get dark." Marty said as he started to make his way out, Jessie soon followed him out the door and through the now dark store as they gathered with everyone else in the parking lot.

Everyone had spent the better part of the day picking the store clean of everything it had. Paul, Johnny, Ann and Eli each had a cart and they were filled with duffle bags, rifles, bow and crossbows.

"This place was pretty picked clean. We managed to snag a couple of rifles and a few crossbows. I guess they preferred guns and bullets to bow and arrows."  
Eli shrugged.

"Yeah, speaking of guns, here." Johnny handed Marty a police belt loaded with everything a cop would need, including the gun. Marty took the belt and pulled out the gun to examine it. It was a Smith and Wesson .45 revolver model 625.

He had never held a gun before in his life in fact he had done his best as a teacher to steer his students clear of them and now he was given one by his student to defend himself against these monsters and god only knows what else.

"What am I doing, He asked himself. "I have never killed before in my life and now I am smashing a bat across peoples faces and stabbing them in the head with a knife. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing," Jessie said. "Killing isn't usually about right or wrong, but whether or not you can sleep at night. I remember my first S.W.A.T mission. It was a bank robbery gone wrong and the creeps took hostages. My job was to go in and disarm them, but it was no good, one of them had a gun held to one of the bank tellers head. I didn't even hesitate to pull the trigger and killed that guy on the spot the rest soon followed. Everyone kept giving me looks and asking me how I felt, but the truth was I didn't really feel bad. He was a bad man with bad intentions and I did what I felt was right. I slept like a baby that night."

"C'mon, let's just get back to the diner." Paul said as he pushed his cart back towards the diner.

Everyone else soon followed as Marty holstered his new gun and slung the belt over his shoulder. This was their new reality now, fighting the walking dead while finding a place to call home. He shouldered his bat and followed everyone back to their temporary home, feeling better than he did before arriving. He turned around and looked at the abandoned store that was once a man's place of business, but now a rundown building with the owner dead inside.

"Thank you, Mr. Otis."

(!)

It was nighttime by the time everyone finally made their way back to the diner. Everyone was on high alert when Leila and Eliza told everyone about their encounter with the bikers and convicts. Jessie had everyone hunker down in the diner as Angela made them dinner on a hot plate and the area was lit up by a gas lamp they had gotten from the camping store.

"We managed to get a few more guns and ammo from the bikers, but who knows how many guns and numbers they have." Leila stated as she loaded bullets into her clip. "We didn't even make a dent in the highway."

"Okay, I'll help you keep a look out while we get a few more hands to help out. Then we get the hell out of here as soon as possible." Jessie informed everyone as he peered out the window.

"No offence, but after what happened to Eliza I am not leaving her alone again." Ann said as she sat in a booth holding her wife and daughter close to her.

"She's right." Eli said, pouring himself a glass of scotch. "We need some guns here at the home front too."

"Honestly, since we have more guns and bullets to spare we should teach people how to shoot." Paul said as he held an empty glass out for Eli to fill.

"I don't know," Jessie said running a hand through his hair. "I know times are tough, but…"

"But nothing." Marty said. "You said it yourself back at the store, we need to accept our new reality or die. My family may or may not be at this ranch, but I am going to do whatever it takes to find out. I'll go at it alone, but I would sleep a lot better at night if you would all come with me to this possible safe haven, now who is ready to start really working together?"

"I'm in." Evan said. "I wasted a clip on these ass hats and I would refer to keep it to one bullet per asshole."

"Charming," Ann said as she stroked her daughter's hair. "I'll help with the gun training, Jessie you will help keep guard, sound good?"

"Sounds great." Jessie said as she stepped outside into the parking lot, shutting the door behind him. He sat down in the lawn chair and took first watch. He wasn't alone for long as Marty stepped out with a chair of his own and set it down next to him.

He pulled his new revolver from his belt and sat down next to Jessie setting the gun in his lap. Jessie nodded at Marty, before staring back at the gate for their long watch.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: How to Beat the Dead**

 **Authors Note: I am back everybody! Florida was fun and all, but now I am back and ready to get back to my story. This will be a very eventful chapter for our group and the last chapter guaranteeing anyone's safety. That's right, after this chapter no one is safe, but look on the bright side, this means new spots will be open for future characters. Enjoy and no hard feelings.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

* * *

After that night, Jessie started training everyone in firearms from the handguns that they had gathered from the bikers and undead cops, to the rifles and crossbows from the hunting store. Jessie thought that some of them could use some work, but their aim was very good for beginners. His real worry was if they would be able to shoot one of the walkers or worse a person.

After he gave everyone the proper training they needed, Jessie guarded the diner while Marty and Leila led a team out to scavenge supplies and move cars. With everyone working together to help guard the group, everyone else was able to safely syphon gas or gather supplies and of course move the cars.

Marty walked over to Paul and Leila as the two were cramming chips and some bottled water into a few duffle bags. Paul looked up at Marty and smiled.

"Good news," Paul chuckled. "We just moved the last few cars out of the way and from that point on it is nothing but open road."

"That's great, so we can leave right away!" Marty said, feeling cheery for the first time since getting the update on his family. Paul placed a hand on his shoulder, letting out a chuckle.

"Hold your horses there, buddy." Paul pointed towards the setting sun. "It's getting dark out and these things get a little lively at night. Plus, with no street lights and nothing but forest around for miles to come, we'd be better traveling in the daylight than at night."

"Yes, I suppose you are right." Marty sighed. Johnny finished bagging a small box of .38 bullets and approached his old teacher.

"Hey, tomorrow at first light we set out to find your family." Johnny said as he was followed by a few others. Marty nodded and with everyone finished with searching the cars they all headed back to the diner.

On the way back, they made small talk and bragged about the cool guns they had acquired or how good they are with their new crossbows, but another topic also came up, the bikers.

"So, has anyone noticed that we haven't seen or heard from any of the bikers?" Evan asked as her bat rested on her shoulder and her Glock swung loosely in her left hand.

"Who knows," Leila shrugged. "Maybe we got them all, maybe the dead got them. Or maybe they just fucked off after we kicked their asses."

"All I care about is getting my family out of here." Aaron said as he carried two full cans full of gas. "I know Ann is too after her wife was almost killed by one of them. The sooner we leave the better."

They approached the fence of the small shopping plaza and Jessie undid the lock and opened the fence. They all piled in and Jessie did a quick survey of the area, before closing the fence and locking up tight, never noticing the flare going off in the distance.

(!)

The next morning everyone was getting ready to leave. The only problem was who would travel with who.

Marty and Johnny rode together in Marty's Honda Odyssey, but he offered a ride to Harper and Clary. There was no way that Ezra was going to let anyone ride with him and Mercedes, so he was out of the loop.

Aaron would take his family in their SUV while Elizabeth would ride with her dog in her Honda and Leila would ride with her. Victoria would keep her rental Chevy while Evan would ride with her. Eli would keep his truck, the Mac'Carty sisters would ride in Ann's silver Honda while Ann Nixon would take her wife and child in her Civic. Jessie would keep his jeep which seemed more durable and modified than all of their cars combined and Paul would keep his moms white Chevy.

Jessie looked around at all the cars and let out a heavy sigh. This caught Ann Mac'Carty's attention as she packed her new hunting bow and some arrows in the trunk of her car.

"What's up?" She asked.

"I think we should ditch the cars and keep the trucks you know." Jessie said as he fumbled with his pocket watch. "We have a lot of vehicles and they're all gonna need gas, spare parts and a huge convoy will draw attention."

"True, but we'll have more storage, a lot of these cars look like they're in good condition and as long as everyone has their own car, no one will be looking to steal yours."

"You really don't trust anyone do you?" Jessie asked.

"Eh, I've spent almost a week with you guys and I can say that if things get dicey I can rely on you guys to help me and my sister."

"Let's go, Mercedes." Ezra called out as he loaded a milk crate full of water into the back of his car.

"Well, I can _almost_ rely on everyone." She sighed. "Seriously, what is that assholes problem?"

"Eh, give him time, he did help you guys out with those bikers." He defended. "Besides, once we get those this ranch, we won't have to speak to him ever again."

"Let's just hope it is still there. I need to get my kid sister somewhere safe." She said as she watched her give Olivia and Clara a couple of candy bars for the road.

"We will," Jessie assured her. "Now, let's get going we have a bit of a drive ahead of us."

Jessie stood on top of an old beat up van and called out for everyone's attention.

"Okay everybody, here is the plan!" He shouted as everyone listened. "We are heading to a dude ranch named, Trippy's. It's about a day's ride near Macon. Now, we have been through a lot this past week, but hopefully that will come to an end. This ranch has houses, food and recently soldiers. Marty and I spoke to one of them it sounds like things are secure and safe there."

"So, what's the plan?" Ann Nixon shouted.

"That plan is that I will take the lead. My car is stronger and I know the way, Marty will follow and Paul will take the rear. Hopefully it'll be a smooth ride."

"Wishful thinking." Paul chuckled as he walked towards the fence. He quickly undid the lock and slid open the fence, only to be immediately attacked by a large walker.

He fell to the ground as the decaying corpse clawed and bit at him. He had his hands on its throat, so it couldn't bite him, but that meant he couldn't reach for his gun or knife. The walker slobbered all over him and he cringed when he felt it's nails digging into his chest.

He growled in pain as he tried to push it off, but Ann quickly made short work out of it when she pulled out her machete and stabbed it through the top of its skull. The walker fell dead on top of Paul, who quickly pushed it off of him and hopped to his feet.

"Thanks, this journey is already off to a great start." He chuckled while wiping the blood off his neck. He was about to make another witty remark but stopped when he saw the horrific look on her face. She wasn't looking at him, but rather behind him.

That's when he heard the groans.

He slowly turned around and his heart stopped when he watched over a dozen walkers wander out from the woods and even more from the opposite end of the highway they had just cleared.

The walkers were migrating and now they knew there was fresh meat waiting for them. A few of the walkers from the forest let out high pitch growls and soon the others made the same noise. Paul wasn't an expert, but he could assume that they were communicating and letting the others know that there were people in the plaza. Paul quickly grabbed the gate and slid it shut, but he was stopped when a few of the walkers started grabbing the fence or blocking the gate.

"Shit, run!" He shouted as he tried to tie the chain to the other end of the gate.

Ann quickly pulled out her revolver she had gotten from the bikers and fired a round into the head of the walker that was between the gate. Jessie and Marty also helped by shooting a few of them and with their guns and Johnny quickly rushed pulled one of the dead carcasses out of the way of the gate. Paul was finally able to chain the gate, but with these many walkers they all knew the fence wouldn't hold.

The men quickly slid the dumpsters in front of the entrance and quickly gathered everyone around near the diner.

"Well, this is fucked!" Eli snapped as he pulled out his bottle of scotch. Jessie saw this and glared at him, before snatching he bottle out from his grip. "What the fuck?"

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Jessie shouted, holding he bottle up to his face. Eli snatched it back and took a quick sip. He let out a small cough after drinking it and shoved it back into his bag.

"Why not, it could be my last drink."

"Now is not the time, dumbass!" Leila shouted as she aimed her rifle at the gate. "We got to think, how are we going to get out of here?"

"Could we just drive through them?" Evan asked as she held Glock close to her.

"I don't know, how many are out there?" Jessie asked.

"Too many," Paul said as he grabbed his shotgun from the backseat of his car. "It was like a parade out there, we would need a fucking tank or a big rig to get through that."

"Could we shoot them all?" Clary asked in a shaky voice.

"No, we don't have the bullets," Ann Nixon stated. "But maybe we could try and thin them out. I mean they are slow and maybe we could stab them through the fence."

"Are you kidding me?" Ezra snapped. "Those fucking things are going to tear that fence down at any second and you want to stand face to face with them through a fucking fence and then there is the noise that they are making."

"What about the noise?" Johnny asked.

"Noise draws them in," Ezra stated. "When Mercedes and I were getting gas, some asshole took a few shots at the cashier, before trying to pop us as well. One minute there was nothing and the next minute there were ten of them start crawling out of the woodwork. I guess they figure where there is noise there is people and where there are people there is food."

"Okay, so they are attracted to noise," Paul pondered. "Maybe we can distract them somehow."

"No," Harper said, her voice barely above a whisper. "it's not the noise they want it's the blood." Everyone looked at her confused before she continued. "I was keeping low and trying to stay out of there sight in Atlanta. I heard someone calling out so I hid under a car. I watched him looking around for someone or something until he was hit by a car. He didn't even stop. Then those things wandered through and started eating him, but they weren't just eating him, they were licking the blood off the street and the walls. It's like they're bees with honey."

"Okay, so blood is like crack to them" Victoria snorted.

"Okay, they are slow, strong in numbers, distracted by noise and they are addicted to blood." Jessie pondered. "Is there anything else?"

"Fire," Eliza exclaimed. "I remember on my way to my daughter's school, I passed by a few bad car wrecks and they were all wandering towards the flames, just like moths."

"Okay, they like bright lights. Is there anything else?" Jessie asked, the tone in his voice sounded as if he was growing more impatient. No one said anything for what seemed like forever, until someone finally spoke up."

"The smell," Everyone looked over at Clary with a curious looked. "They don't eat each other, because they are all dead and rotten. Like Harper said, they love blood, fresh and red blood, but they don't eat that black rotten blood they all carry and then there is the Walkers themselves. Remember when I told you I was trampled, well there was a walker on top of me. I was so scared I couldn't scream or move I just sat there on the ground as it's rotting corpse just lay on top of me. A few more of them passed me by, one even looked me in the eye, but it just kept walking. I think they get confused by the smell and mistook me for one of them."

"Smell…" Jessie pondered. "Okay, what I am going to suggest may sound crazy, but it may work. There's that walker near the fence, the one Ann killed earlier, if we get that and cut him up we can maybe sneak out and cause a distraction."

"How, there's hundreds of them out there and they know we are in here. We need something big to distract them." Marty sighed.

"A big rig," Paul said. "There is one near down the other end of the highway. I passed it when I came here. It didn't look to beat up and it had one of those gas tankers attached to it. Maybe if we lay on the horn and rig it to blow then the noise and the flames will draw them all away, or at least thin them out enough for us to get away."

"Okay, that sounds great, but that just leaves the question of who wants to volunteer."

"I'll do it." Paul said as he grabbed his bag. "I don't have anything to lose and I know where it is."

"I'll go to." Evan said a little to quickly. Jessie gave her a concerned look.

"I don't think that is a good idea." Jessie stated. "I mean you are a young woman and what about your family?"

"I am twenty-one and my family is all the way in India. I don't like to say it, but the chances of me seeing them again is between zero and never." She sighed. "Anyone else want to go?"

"I'll do it." Clary said. Everyone looked at her again confused, everyone except Ezra who started to laugh.

"Her, seriously?" He laughed. "We'd be better off sending a fucking kitten then sending her."

"Ezra…" Mercedes scolded.

"I'm sorry, babe, but she hasn't done anything to help, unless you count sitting in a fetal position helping."

"Hey," Leila snapped. "She helped out with the cars and found that ibuprofen for your girlfriend and I am going with them."

"Okay, someone want to drive my car for me?" Paul asked as he held out his keys for his Chevy.

"I'll do it." Harper said. "I know I don't look it, but I can drive."

Paul tossed her the keys without any debate and ran over to the gate to get the dead walker. Jessie followed him and helped him move the barricade, before grabbing the walker. The walkers by the fence saw them and got riled up by pulling on the fence and growling viciously.

"Are you sure about this?" Jessie said. "I should be the one going out there. You guys are the civilians in all this."

"Not anymore, there are no civilians." Paul said as he and Jessie grabbed a leg and dragged the large walker down to the diner.

"Still, maybe I should go with you guys."

"No, if anything happens they are going to need you." Paul explained. "If you die then these poor people will lose their heads and get themselves killed."

"What can we do?" Jessie asked.

"Get some road flares and start throwing them around, maybe they will get them scattered."

They finally dragged the carcass back to the diner and everyone gathered around as Leila slipped on some dishwashing gloves, before pulling out her dagger. This walker was a fat guy, so the good news is there would be plenty of entrails for Paul and the group, but the bad news is they were not eager to do any of this and time was running short.

"Okay," Leila sighed. "We got the coats and scarves?" Ann and Eliza nodded as they handed them out to everyone. "Okay, so I'm gonna cut this big guy open, smear its blood and guts on our clothes and a little on our faces and we are gonna walk through that horde and hopefully distract them, right?"

"Right." Paul said. He looked to Evan and Clary and the two nodded.

"Alrighty, here we go." She stood over the corpse, gripped the dagger with both hands and plunged it down into the round stomach. Black blood splattered out from the exit wound as she started cutting across the belly.

Everyone cringed at the smell and Clary couldn't help but vomit at the sight and smell. Leila opened the carcass up and she started smearing the blood on her borrowed jacket and cringed when she rubbed some along her neck, since that is where walkers like to bite the most.

"Okay everyone, let's get ready!" Paul said as he slipped on a pair of latex gloves and dived into the belly.

(!)

The four climbed over the fence while Jessie and Eli stood on the roof and threw road flares out in front of the plaza. They watched as the cluster of walkers broke off and went off in separate directions.

This allowed the four to slowly and carefully walk through them without much trouble. They took it slow of course and they occasionally bumped into one or two. Clary had to literally bite her tongue when one of them stumbled into her. She could have sworn it gave her a look, but she kept her composure and let out a small groan, actually fooling it as it wandered off towards a nearby flare.

She let out a heavy sigh and continued trudging through the herd of walkers, before they finally reached a clearing and were able to pick up the pace. They eventually got to a safe enough distance where they could start running to the truck.

"Okay, that was fucking insane." Evan chuckled as they continued down the road.

"Yeah, but it worked, great job, Clary." Paul complimented as he pulled out the walkie Jessie gave him. "Jessie, we made it through the herd. We're on our way to the truck."

"Got it, I'll start rounding everyone up into their cars so we can get out of here and I don't want to sound like an asshole, but if you guys could hurry it would be appreciated. The fence is starting to break down."

"We're almost there!" Paul said as he ran down the road. He could see the tiny blue dot that was the pickup truck and it grew bigger and bigger with each passing step.

"Okay, so when we get this big bitch started we'll drive it about halfway to the diner and use this broom stick to keep the horn going. When they get close enough we'll dump some gas on the hood of the truck and stick a soaked rag into the gas tank, light them up and get the fuck out of dodge."

"You make it sound so easy!" Evan sarcastically replied.

"Bite me." Paul shot back.

"Maybe one day." She winked.

The four finally made it to the truck, but to their horror, there were bikers waiting for them. They hadn't seen them yet, so Paul quickly hid everyone behind a nearby car as they listened in on the bikers.

"So, what is the plan now?" One of the bikers said.

"Basically, we wait until those walkers tear apart everyone one of those bastards in the plaza and then we lure them away with the flare guns." He held up the orange flare gun emphasizing his point. "We pick them clean, take their cars and put their snarling heads on our bikes."

"Yeah, fuck them. I mean how the hell do a bunch of punks kill our guys. That's just fucking embarrassing."

"Okay, how do we do this?" Paul asked.

"The same way we always do it." Leila stated as she pulled out her M9 pistol and handed it to Clary. She hesitantly took the gun and let out a shaky breath, she knew what she needed to do, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "There are five of them, you poke your head up and aim your gun and pull the trigger. Don't hesitate, or you will die, got it?"

Everyone nodded and readied their guns.

Leila counted to three and the four of them jumped up and opened fired on the bikers. Paul blasted one man in the head with his shotgun, while Leila picked off two of them with her rifle. Clary and Evan fired off a few rounds, but they managed to eventually kill the two remaining bikers. They never stood a chance.

"Damn, these fuckers have been a pain in the ass since the moment this all started!" Paul shouted.

"Hopefully that is the last of them." Leila said as she picked up their weapons. She walked over to Clary who was visibly shaking and carefully took back her gun, before giving her the handgun that she had gotten from the man she had killed. "This is called a Heckler and Koch 45. It's got a nice grip and it holds ten rounds. It's yours now."

Clary took the gun and nodded before watching Paul stabbing the bikers in the head. She was still shaken up to ask why he would stab dead people in the head and just watched as he started lifting their bodies up.

"What are you doing?" Evan asked.

"These assholes lured these fucking walkers to our home, now we are going to use them to lure them away."

"How?"

"Just get this truck gassed up and get ready to go." Paul snapped as he hopped into the driver seat and started to work on hotwiring it. He eventually got it started as the girl dumped the gas on the hood of the truck and shoved the gas-soaked cloth into the gas tank. Paul pulled out his walkie. "Jessie, please tell me you're still there."

"Yes, thank got for suppressors." Jessie said from the other end. "I've been thinning the herd along the fence, but they're still coming."

"Don't worry, we've got everything we need." He honked the horn and the truck roared as long as he could letting boom out loud.

"I hear you and so do the walkers." Jessie laughed. "But they are still lingering around."

"Don't worry, they won't be for long." Paul could see the herd and he stopped the truck and turned to everyone who was cramped in the cab. "Okay, Leila, you and I will drag the bodies out in front of the truck. Evan, you jam the broom stick against the horn and wedge it against the seat and Clary I want you to take this lighter and count to sixty and light the cloth in the gas tank and then run like hell, can you do that?"

"I ran track in high school I thing I will be good." Clary said in a shaky voice.

Everyone did as they were told as Evan wedged the broom between the horn and the seat. This made the horn ring out as loud as it could. Paul and Leila quickly dragged the bodies out and Paul pulled out the flare gun and fired it into the sky. It was cloudy that day, so it would be noticeable. That would get the herd going in their direction.

Clary was getting nervous as the herd started getting closer and closer. Their snarls grew louder and louder, before they were finally ten feet away from them, they all stopped and started to devour the biker's bodies as a few stragglers started gathering around the truck. Paul quickly lit the truck's hood on fire and the whole cab went up in flames. That was when Clary reached sixty and lit the cloth in the gas tank.

Everyone ran from the walkers and truck as fast as they could and this caused the walkers to follow them as well. They started to swarm around the truck as the flames engulfed it and it didn't take long before the whole thing blew up. The explosion knocked them back and the blast was loud enough to blow out their eardrums.

Disoriented, the four of them slowly stood to their feet and looked at the remains of both the truck and the walkers. They were all dead

"Holy shit!" Evan exclaimed. "That was fucking awesome!"

"Ugh, if you say so." Paul said, still disoriented from the explosion. "Come on, let's go."

Before he could take a step forward, he could see his white car riding through the smoke and heading their way. The car pulled up to them and the young girl driving it rolled down the window and smiled. "We're all packed and ready to go." Harper smiled.

"Good, you're driving." Paul said as he hopped in the back seat. Everyone else piled in as well and buckled up. "Harper, get us the fuck out of this hell hole. I don't want to see that plaza or these bikers ever again."

"Sounds good to me."

She did a K-turn and drove back to the convoy, following them away from Atlanta and to the ranch and hopefully a new start. While they drove the pondered at how they did more than just survived another day, they proved to themselves and whoever was out there that they could beat the dead.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: One Long Road**

 **Authors Note: Thank you everyone for your support and reviews as always, I love them deeply. Now here we are at what I would probably call part two of my story and like I said last chapter, don't get to attached to anyone here. I am never going to say when they are going to die, I want it to be a shocker, but that doesn't mean I won't accept future characters. Sorry for the rambling, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

* * *

 **(Paul's POV)**

' _What the hell am I even doing?'_ I thought to myself as Harper drives my mom's car to some ranch that may or may not even be standing right now. I felt like I should have just gassed up my car and gotten out of there as soon as I could, but after what happened with those bikers, Marty and his family and the rest of the group being as lost as me I just couldn't do it. It's not how mom raised me.

Besides, if I ever got injured I had at least five different kinds of medical help at my disposal. Then there is Aaron who knows how to fix cars and of course there is the fact that they may be the only decent people I may come across from here on out.

"Are you okay, Paul?" Harper asked from the driver's seat. I looked over at her, before looking back at Clary and Evan in the back seat. Clary was sleeping with her head resting on the window ledge with her blond hair flowing in the open breeze while Evan listened to music on her Ipod.

"Yeah, just thinking about how we're gonna make it from here on out." I sighed as I rolled down my window and rested my head on the windowsill.

"What do you mean?" Harper asked.

"I mean we don't have any more law, order or anything we are use to." I explained. "Take school for example, we have some nurses, med students and an E.M.T, but how many more are like that out there and then there is food, do you guys know how to grow veggies or any of that other shit?"

"Good point, there is going to be a day when we won't have another car to syphon for gas or a hospital to raid for medicine." Harper said in a low voice.

"Good point, it's not like we are the only people left in the world who needs these things." Clary yawned from the back seat. "How much longer till we get there?"

"Another few hours." I said. "Hopefully we can get there before nightfall."

"You think they'll have some meat and veggies for supper?" Evan asked. "I like pancakes and Cheetos as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't mind some chicken and corn."

"They do have some livestock and crops, but that is only if the ranchers are still there. Ugh, this shit just gets me nauseous. Let's just try to keep our hopes up."

"Yeah, we're in short supply of that." Harper said as she followed the convoy.

We drove like this for another few hours, watching the trees pass by or the birds fly away. Things were pretty smooth, before we came to a sudden stop. I looked out the window and watched as everyone started stepping out of their cars, so we joined them and stepped out to join them.

"What's up?" I asked, before grabbing my shotgun and joining everyone near Jessie's car. I looked over at Jessie and he waved his hand over to an old army checkpoint. It was completely fenced off with barriers in front of the fences and jeeps surrounding the area. It was the diner all over again.

"Well this is just fucking great!" Ezra snapped.

"Settle down." I grunted. "We'll just open the fences, move the jeeps and the barriers and we'll be fine."

"He's right, let's get a move on." Jessie said as he led everyone over to the barricade. Ezra just sat on the hood of his car with Mercedes. "That means you too, Ezra."

Ezra rolled his eyes and jump up from the hood of his car and stomped over to the gate. Johnny and I started with the barriers while Marty and Jessie started to help everyone else move the jeeps out of the way.

Ezra and Eli started to check the jeeps for ammo and spare parts, but they were picked clean of parts, gas and tires. The insides of the jeeps were also bare of anything of use. I scanned the area surrounding the fence and noticed a few walker carcasses lying in a small pile on the side of the road. None of them had anything that looked like military, so hopefully they got overrun and managed to salvage what they could while piling up the bodies.

' _But why take the time to block off the roads with the barriers and jeeps?'_

"Just a couple of more cars and we can get moving." Johnny said as he removed his skull cap to wipe the sweat from his brows.

"The sooner the better." I said as I continued to look around. "After we get the cars past the fence, maybe we should barricade it back up."

"Why would we do that?" Johnny asked.

"This place looks too neat," I stated. "The cars are stripped, picked clean and the road is perfectly blocked off. Who would take the time to set up an old military checkpoint?"

"Guys, let's get this train going!" Jessie said as the final jeep was moved out of the way. Everyone started getting into their cars, before I could even get a word out. Johnny gave me a look and I just shrugged, before waving to his car, signaling for him to go. If this was a set up, then we would have been hit by now.

I quickly headed over to my car and relieved Harper of her driving duties. I was tense from the thought of being ambushed and I needed to be the one driving just in case we would get jumped on the road. I hopped in the driver's seat and handed Harper my shotgun, before setting my .45 on the dash board. Harper gave me a puzzled look.

"Are you okay, Paul?"

"Yeah, it's just a precaution." I assured as I followed everyone through the barriers, keeping my eyes on the road ahead of me and occasionally behind me as well.

It took us a few more hours, but we finally managed to get to the ranch. It was in a secluded area out in the sticks. There was nothing but green grassy hills and tall trees for miles to come. We finally found the main gate connected to a long fence that was wrapped with barbed wire and a makeshift guard tower with a soldier watching over the area. Jessie was the first one to stop the car for the convoy and he slowly stepped out of his vehicle with his hands raised and approached the gate.

"Who are you?" The guard asked with his assault rifle raised.

"My name is, Jessie Cortez. I radioed this place a few days ago looking for a family by the name of, Chang!" Jessie explained. "

"Jessie!"

We all looked over to see a young man with short, brown buzzcut hair running towards the gate. I recognized his voice from the radio back at the hunting store, he was the one we had talked to. He said he was a soldier from Fort Jackson, but instead of a uniform he was dressed in a flannel shirt and cargo pants with his rifle slung across his back.

"I've been waiting for you." He chuckled, before pulling out his walkie-talkie. "Kill the generator on the east side. We've got friendlies."

We were all confused for a moment, before the man opened the gates and approached Jessie.

"Hey, you may not remember me, but my name is Jason, Jason Parker." He introduced himself. "We talked on the radio."

"Right, listen we need to know if our friend's wife and child are in here." Jessie asked as Marty stepped out of his vehicle and ran up to the gate.

"Please is my wife and son in there, they said that they were in Fort Jackson before being evacuated." Marty explained. Jason held up his hands reassuringly as he slowly approached him.

"I found them as soon as we lost contact with you." He stated as I watched Marty's eyes widened in excitement. "They are in cabin number four on the left side with the yellow door."

Marty took off like a bat out of hell and left us all to deal with the guards.

"Okay, if you will all follow me I will show you where you can park your cars and we can get you all settled."

After they were allowed entry, everyone had drove into the ranch and had parked their cars side by side in a nearby field. Jason had everyone follow him to a row of cabins and they all were those duplex style houses.

We all dropped off our gear and weapons I shacked up with Eli as everyone else had their own cabin. I set my bag down next to the dresser and walked over to my bed and lifted the mattress so I could hide my shotgun underneath.

"So, I guess this is home now." Eli said as he placed his shotgun upright in the corner. "Now we can just forget about the undead and go on with our lives?"

"Sure, if you want me to lie to you." I shrugged. "I mean this place is nice and all, but if places like the White House, Fort Jackson and along with all the cities have fallen then what is to stop a little ranch have with its two guards and fence."

"C'mon, don't be so negative." Eli said as he pulled out his bottle of scotch and two shot glasses. "Sure, it has been hard, but think about what you just said. Our military with their heavy weapons and training fell while a bunch of pedestrians worked together to fight off criminals and Biters and escape a broken-down diner. I love those odds."

"Okay, we've schlepped by so far, but life is one long road anything could happen tomorrow or the next day." Eli handed me the shot glass and I accepted it as he continued to speak.

"You know you sound like every customer I have ever served. You could live your life working out, eating organic, live in a stress-free environment and all sorts of crap that will be good for your body and there is still a slim chance that you will be hit by a drunk driver from my bar."

"So true." I chuckled as we clanked our glasses together and downed our drinks. I felt my throat burn from the scotch but felt that brief moment of bliss afterwards. It makes me wonder what will happen when we run out.

We did a couple more, before Jason swung by and let us know that dinner was ready. The sun had nearly set over the horizon as we all gathered near the main house. Three long rows of picnic tables were set out in the back of the house with cutlery and plates neatly set out for us.

Eli and I had found our group of friends as both soldiers and what we could assume were civilians sat down with us. Some of them looked like families with kids of their own, but the rest were a little rough around the edges like, Ezra.

Everyone sat around talking to one another, before being interrupted by the sounding of a small bell.

"Everyone," An older man said as two young men stood behind them. "My name is Tripp McAlister, but everyone just calls me, Trippy. These are my boys Lester and Gregory. The reason why we are introducing ourselves is because we have some new faces with us tonight and we are just so happy to have you all here with us, safe and sound."

Everyone raised a glass of water to that saying, 'hear, hear'.

"We have plenty of food and water and hopefully we can just wait this out as our boys in Washington come up with a cure." Trippy said.

This made everyone smile as a few farm hands came out of the house with pots of what I could smell was beef stew. Everyone got a bowl and some biscuits and we were all content with eating something other than pancakes and eggs for dinner or those military rations we raided from the outdoor store.

Okay, Eli was right, maybe it isn't so bad to have some hope after all.

After dinner, we all gathered around a camp fire as Marty introduced us to his family. His wife was around thirty with long dark hair and his boy was six who looked just like his father at a young age.

"Everyone, this is my wife Donna and my son Drew." Marty introduced as everyone exchanged their hellos. "These people helped me find you two and I owe them everything."

"Only your friendship." Jessie stated as he threw a log into the fire. He looked at the young boy and smiled. "Your father helped save a lot of live back in Atlanta."

"We thought about you every day." Donna said as she rested her head on her husband's shoulder.

"You guys were never far from my heart." Marty said as he held up a photo of his family. "There wasn't a night when I didn't look at this before bed."

"This was from when we took Drew to the beach." Donna smiled.

"It was a fun day. I was worried about getting sunblock on Drew that I completely forgot to smear some on me. My neck was on fire for two days and I was shedding skin for a week." Marty told us, earning a few chuckles from our group.

"That's nice, I still have my photo of me and my mother as well from when we went to the park. It's the only thing I have left of her. I don't even take it out of my wallet." Harper explained.

"That's sweet," Mercedes said as she started to roll her promise ring around her finger. "Ezra and I got these just a few days before the crisis. He was so sweet."

"That's a rare sight to see." I chuckled.

Ezra said nothing, but discreetly scratched his nose with his middle finger, pointed at my direction. Johnny smiled at the group, before taking off his skull cap to scratch his head.

"Why are you always wearing that thing?" Ezra asked.

"It's true, you do wear it all the time, even during class when I tell you not to." Marty chastises.

"Hey, my mom made it for me and it's never leaving my presence, so get use to it." Johnny snapped. "Besides, I'm sure we all have that special something that is important to us."

"Yeah, I got my dad's rifle and Jesus right here." Leila said as she pulled out her cross necklace from around her neck. "I'm good."

"My father was a soldier too," Aaron said with his daughter sitting in his lap. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small medal, but to my surprise it was the medal of honor.

"That was your dad's?" I asked.

"Yup, for acts of bravery. The proudest achievement our family has ever won." He stated proudly. Clara pulled out her family's photo album. "There's even a picture of grandpa's award ceremony somewhere in here."

"We'll look at it later, baby." He said as he kissed her head.

"I got a picture of my family as well," Victoria said to Clara. "I'll show it to you later if I can see your grandpa's photo."

Clara smiled and nodded as Ann Mac'Carty pulled out her sapphire necklace.

"This has a picture of me and my sister, it's close to my heart where I like it." Ann said as she smiled at her little sister, Angela.

"Aww, ugh!" Angela faked vomited, earning a few laughs, especially from Clara and Olivia Nixon. Ann just let out a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. Angela rolled her eyes and held out her wrist, showing us her pink wrist watch with a picture of a rose in the center.

"My darling sister bought this for me on my birthday when I was twelve and I have always had it with me." Angela said in a sweet tone. "It shows me the importance of family and to cherish what little time I will have left with them and also to tell mom and dad what time she really came home the night before."

Ann kicked some dirt over at her sister's feet, but she didn't care. Everyone else started sharing stories about their important items and what they meant to them like Eli's rosery pendant that belonged to his mother or Jessie's watch that belong to his grandfather from World War 2 with the bullet still lodged in it. Everyone was laughing and fooling around and for once we were all happy, even if it was for a night, we were all acting like a real dysfunctional family.

After another hour we all finally decide to go to bed and we made our way to our different cabins. I stripped down to nothing but my boxer shorts and slowly climbed on top of my bed, feeling my shotgun dig into my back through the mat. I was to tired to get it, so I just left it.

Today was a good day.

Tomorrow would be another story.

(No One's POV)

"Someone moved our cars and no one got the jump on them?" A man in an orange jumpsuit asked.

"We were ambushed by a group of biters, we didn't have a choice but to clear out." One of the bikers said. "Don't worry, we'll get'em next time."

"If they're the same guys from before then they will know that this barricade was a set up." The older man in the jumpsuit grunted. "Forget it, next time we'll follow them to where ever they are holding up and we'll take'em for everything they have."

"Keep the women alive and if the men surrender, take them too. Food and water is good, but people are running lower and lower each day."

"Okay, we have someone coming now." The biker said as he pulled out his sawed-off shotgun and checked to see if it was loaded. "What do you want us to do, Viktor."

"Same as always." He said as he pulled out his AK-74. "Rob them, then kill them, but not those assholes from the diner, I want them all for myself."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Something Worse**

 **Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your support and reviews they always make my day. Today's chapter will be some character development and action, so enjoy and review.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.**

* * *

Ann woke up early the next morning with her daughter Olivia tucked between her and Eliza. She had tucked her into her own bed last night, but she must have gotten scared and climbed into bed with them. She didn't care though, she lived for moments like these.

She knew she had to get up and see what needed to be done, but she wanted her girls to get as much sleep as they could. It wasn't like the world was something to look forward to anymore, especially for a thirteen-year-old girl.

She had lost track of how long she was staring at her daughter, before feeling a gentle stroke on her cheek. She looked up to see her wife was awake, stroking her cheek with her free hand while her other was pinned under her daughter.

"Are you okay?" She asked her.

"I don't know," Ann sighed, pulled her wife's hand to her lips, gently kissing her fingers. "How are we going to get through all this, I mean I knew being a parent would be tough, but now with all this going on I worry about you two constantly."

"You always worried about us and that's what I love about you." Eliza explained. "But all I keep thinking about are those children with their parents back at Olivia's school and how they may not have made it. I think about how Olivia could have been left alone in all that if I haven't made it in time."

"But we made it and we have each other and we will get through this. We have to for her."

"Hmm, I love how smart and optimistic you are this early in the morning." Ann smiled. "It's a shame that Olivia is here, we haven't had any time alone for a while now."

"Patience, not in front of our daughter, we won't be able to send her to therapy." Ann smirked before

After another hour of lounging the family, she eventually got up, showered and dressed before heading out to the eating area for breakfast. They said their hellos to everyone before sitting down for some eggs and biscuits as they discussed what they were going to do for the day.

Aaron spoke up first.

"We'll seeing as I am basically the only mechanic around here, I will be helping out with some of the cars, you know like checking the engines and the tire pressure. Just in case we need to make a quick getaway."

"Why would we need to get away?" His wife, Olivia, said. "We have everything we need here."

"I know, honey, but we can't rule out the fact that there might be a day that this place could come under attack. Do you remember the diner and how those bikers had led those walkers to us?"

"Yes, but we didn't have a fence surrounding us or soldier protecting us." Olivia argued.

"Olivia, you can't argue the fact that there may be a day when we will have to run." Ann stated. "Like Aaron said, we weren't expecting that attack at the diner and we barley made our way out of that. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"I guess."

"Ya'll got nothing to worry about." Trippy said as he set a kettle of coffee on the table. "Our fences are wrapped with barbed wire and thanks to my boys we managed to rig up a few generators, giving us an electric fence. We are as safe as can be. We turn them on at nights though, so keep your keeps away from them."

"Of course, I already warned Clara when we got here." Olivia reassured.

"Good job." Trippy complimented. "It important to keep the kids safe from here on out. I don't think they will get a childhood like the rest of us. Good or bad."

"True," Aaron said. "So, what is the plan?"

"Hopefully we can just wait it out until the government boys can make a cure." Trippy said. "All we have to do is-"

He was interrupted as a small explosion going off in the south side of the ranch.

Everyone had gathered their weapons and rushed out to the explosion. His oldest son, Lester had a fire extinguisher ready as he started to put out the flames. When the smoke clear, Trippy cursed at the top of his lungs, stomping his feet in a fit of rage.

"I told you this thing was a piece of shit," Trippy shouted at the top of his lungs. Lester shot him a dirty look. "What were you thinking?"

"You told me to install it," Lester snapped. "You said it was your, 'good old reliable power box.', so don't get pissed at me for your bullshit."

"Boy, don't be giving me lip." Trippy warned. "You're just lucky you got it in time, or the whole ranch could have gone up and what if the kids were playing around it when it happened?"

"Shut up and help me figure out what we are going to do?" Lester grunted. "This generator was used to help power up our meat locker, do you know how much of our shit is going to spoil, not to mention the medicine."

"Fuck!" Trippy snapped. He ran a hand through his hair as almost everyone in the camp had come to see what the commotion was about. "Sorry folks, that generator was old and faulty, I've been wanting to replace it for a long time now, but you know…now we don't have anything to keep our meat locker going. That means our meat is going to spoil, but so is our insulin for our diabetic guest."

"Where can we find another generator?" Jessie asked with his rifle strapped over his shoulder.

"I was thinking the Save-Lots store. They always have a couple on sale, but that's all the way in Macon and who knows if they might even have some. They only ever have three or four on the sales floor."

"But they keep a few in the grocery back room, preferably on the top shelf." Paul weighed in. "We use to sell them at our store, we kept them on the top shelf to keep people from sneaking back and stealing them."

"You think they might have a generator on a top shelf?" Trippy asked.

"No doubt about it. We could even get some food and some meds and whatever else that wasn't picked clean." Paul suggested.

"Aw hell, he's got my vote." Lester said.

"Lester, no one asked you for your opinion." Trippy grunted, before turning back to Paul. "If we can recruit some men, would you be willing to get us some supplies?"

"Sure, I ain't got nothing to lose." Paul shrugged. "I'll need a truck though, they're obviously pretty big and heavy."

"I got a Ford F 150, Lester get the keys." Trippy ordered his son. Lester let out another grunt.

"Fine, but I'm driving there and I'm getting that fucking generator." He snapped. His father was ready to protest, but Ann put a stop to that real quick.

"You know, Paul doesn't know the area to well, if Lester could guide everyone there it would be safer for everyone." She said. Trippy still looked unsure, but he reluctantly agreed. Now they just needed a few more to help them out.

Evan agreed a little to fast as well as Jessie. Eli also agreed to help as well as Victoria, Leila and Johnny. Everyone was a little on edge, but they didn't seem to have any other choice.

"You sure you want to go?" Jessie asked Johnny and Evan. "I mean I know we've been through some shit, but I don't know about this."

"It's like Paul said, we've got nothing to lose." Johnny shrugged. "Besides, it's not like I've got any experience in doing anything on a ranch tending cows or anything."

"Look, just stay by me and don't do anything risky." Jessie warned him.

"And by risky you mean stupid?" Johnny asked rhetorically.

"You got it." Jessie said with a wink.

Everyone had packed up their gear and they all piled in Lester's and Jessie's truck. Jason ran over to Jessie and Paul, before they headed out. "I don't know if I like the idea of sending out civilians to do this."

"No offence, but there are no such things as civilians anymore. We're all just a bunch of assholes trying get by at this point." Paul explained.

"Besides, these people need your help in order to survive. How many men do you have?" Jessie asked. Jason shook his head.

"Including me, seven."

"Shit, what happened?" Jessie asked.

"Some people were bit and didn't tell us, while some of them stayed behind to save people, they were soldiers till the end."

"Sorry man."

"Nah, forget it." Jason said with a loose wave. "Just get to the store and get back safe and take this." He reached for his belt and removed his walkie. "Keep this on you, if you run into any trouble I will come and get you."

"Thank you, we'll be back soon."

Everyone piled up into their vehicles and once everyone was ready they all took off towards Macon. They had their guns, some spare gas and some jerky that was made courtesy of, Angela Mac'Carty.

The two vehicles drove away from the ranch and back down the highway. Paul rode shotgun with Lester while Johnny and Eli rode in the back. Jessie took Evan, Leila and Victoria in his vehicle. While the drove, Johnny lite up his last smoke as Lester continued to focus on the road. No one had said a word until Paul had decided to break the tension.

"So, it was nice of you folks to give us a place to stay." Paul said.

"Yeah, we ain't got to many people left in the world and our number get smaller while the dead's numbers get bigger." Lester sighed. "Glad to see some kids have made through this, it wasn't good seeing so many families getting taken down by those things."

"You see a lot of stuff like that?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, I was out getting some barbed wire and some new gas cans when everything went to shit. My neighbors were eating their kids, people were trampling over each other to get away and this one guy…he shot a little girl." Lester had a grim look on his face as everyone else remained silent.

"Was she a walker?" Evan asked.

"No…I don't think she was. Fucker didn't even hesitate. He was running away when he bumped into her, he saw her and…it just doesn't even matter anymore. I told my dad and all he did was ask if I killed the guy, which I didn't. I didn't have a gun and I wasn't about to tangle with a fucking psycho, but my dad didn't care, he just gave me some bullshit about how weak I was or what if he finds his way to our ranch."

"He seems to bust your balls a lot." Paul stated.

"Eh, you know how it is. He's always right and I am always wrong and when I am right I did it wrong. Like this whole generator business, let's say everything goes smooth and we get one. He'll start busting my balls, 'What took you so long,' or 'Why didn't you take a short cut to save gas,' and 'you have a knife, but you chose to shoot everything in sight, wasting all of our bullets.'" He let out a heavy sigh as Johnny offered him a puff from his cigarette. He took it and damn near smoked it to the butt, before giving it back to Johnny. "Thanks."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, everyone was working to keep their new home stable. Ann Mac'Carty took Olivia and Clara Hannay out hunting with their crossbows, while Aaron worked on some cars. Mercedes and Angela Mac'Carty helped take care of the kids, having help take care of lunch.

Elizabeth ran checkups on everyone to see if they would be coming down with a cold or anything serious, but so far everyone was healthy.

Ezra helped keep watch on the perimeter, while Marty and his family along with Harper, Clary, Ann and her family helped tend to harvesting corn from the fields. Eliza had the most experience with farming, so she took care of harvesting.

"Shuck the corn for what we're going to eat tonight, then put it in the wicker basket over here," She pointed at the wicker basket next to her feet. "Then put the husks into the white garbage can for composting. Same thing with the dead leaves on the stalks, clip them and throw'em in. Then put the ones we won't eat into the grey bins that, Trippy provided for us, here."

She pointed at the grey bins next to her daughter, Olivia. Everyone understood their jobs and got right to work. Eliza stood next to her wife and had begun helping her with the corn, so they could get it ready for dinner.

While they were shucking, Ann bumped her hips into Eliza's as a mischievous grin spread across her face. Eliza smirked back and continued working before asking. "Something on your mind, babe?"

"Just you taking charge and being so bossy." Ann said. "I always loved that side of you."

"I remember you saying that I was a pain in the ass when I acted like that."

"Well that is true, both in the house hold and the bedroom." Ann said as she bent down to pick up a fallen husk. Eliza made the mistake of checking out her wife's ass and caught a glimpse of her blue panties peeking out. Eliza bit her lip when Ann looked over her shoulder and winked at her wife.

"What are you doing to me!?" She hissed through her teeth. "You're killing me out here."

"I'm just encouraging you for some alone time."

"Ugh!" Eliza groaned as she finished up the rest of her corn. After an hour the garden was picked clean and Trippy came by with a few helpers.

"Well, this is great, thank you so much for your help, Eliza." Trippy complimented. Eliza smiled and nodded. "My boys can carry this to the barn, if you want I was about to feed the horses if your kids want to see them?"

"Can we?" Olivia asked.

"Sure, baby." Ann said. "Just always stay in sight and behave."

"Oh, she'll be fine." He guided Olivia and a few others to the corral as the ranch hands took the corn away. Ann grabbed her wife's hand and practically dragged her back to the cabin.

Meanwhile, Ann Mac'Carty had spent the day teaching Oliva and her daughter Clara how to hunt. Olivia was a tad clueless, but Clara was picking up on tracking almost immediately.

"She's always been a fast learner." Olivia smiled as her daughter followed the deer tracks. "But I am still worried about her."

"Of course, you are, just like I am worried about my sister. It's hard not to when both the dead and the living want to kill you."

"It's not just that, but I mean what if the day comes and I am not there to protect her." Olivia explained. "The thought of her alone, with nothing but evil all around her just haunts me to my soul."

"I feel you, but honestly, if we want to survive and if we want her to survive, we have to become something different from what we were, something better, but at the same time something worse. That may be the only way to see tomorrow."

"Psst." Clara whispered.

Ann and Olivia both made their way over to her and they spotted the deer. It was a big buck, nibbling on grass with it's back to them. Ann kept her crossbow on her and Clara did the same. She looked down to the young girl, who looked back at her. Ann nodded for the kid to take the shot, but after a few seconds, she realized that the kid couldn't do it, so Ann did it for her.

It was a clean shot in the head and it went down fast. The three gathered around the fallen animal and Clara let out a sad sigh.

"I'm sorry, I thought I could do it."

"Don't worry, I couldn't shoot either at first, but eventually you will be able too, especially if it's the matter of life or death." Ann explained as she pulled out her walkie. "We got the dear, come give us a hand."

"You got it." A voice said from the other end.

"I'll get better I promise." Clara said with determination.

"I know you will."

Back with Paul and Jessie's group, they had made it to the store and they were surprised to see only a few walkers lurking around. Everyone readied their knives and whatever else ready to kill these things when they heard the rumbling of motorcycles.

"Oh, shit!" Paul snapped as he went for his shotgun. Suddenly, twelve bikers all pulled out into the parking lot, circling the group. They screamed their insults, threats and all sorts of fowl things as everyone aimed their guns at them.

One of them had a sword and took a swing at Johnny, but the young boy ducked down in time, only receiving a small cut on the back of his shoulder.

Jessie knew they weren't there to negotiate, bargain or take hostages, they were there for blood. With no other choice, Jessie raised his rifle and fired at the bikers.

And all hell broke loose.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Never Easy**

 **Authors Note: Hey everybody, sorry for the long wait, July was a bit hectic. First my grandfather passed away, so that wasn't good. Then afterwards I had work and every day was hotter than hell, so that left me drained and all I wanted to do was drink beer and watch something on Netflix. Then the days I had off we would go hang out at BBQ's and pool so…yeah. I hope this action-packed chapter makes up for my tardiness. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead.**

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Chaos ensued shortly after the first shot was fired as all of the bikers had started firing back. Some had taken cover behind their van while the rest rode around on their bikes, shooting at them with their hand guns and small automatic guns.

Paul ran towards an abandoned car, firing his shotgun at anyone that came close to him, while Jessie fired at the men taking cover by the van to give everyone a chance to run away.

Johnny aimed his repeater at a few other bikers and shot at them as Lester fired his .357 revolver at an oncoming walker. He was so focused on the walker, he didn't see the biker cruise in on his Harley from behind and swipe a heavy chain at the young man's legs.

Lester fell to the ground screaming as Johnny grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him to a nearby car for cover. He quickly reloaded his rifle, fumbling with the bullets in his pocket as the biker swung around for another attack.

This time he was the one struck by surprise as Evan ducked up from her cover and swung her bat as hard as she could at the man. The man was knocked off his bike as his steel horse slid across the parking lot. Evan quickly aimed her Glock 17 at the man's bleeding face and fired a round into the center of his head.

Leila aimed her father's M16A2 rifle at two of the bikers that were roaming around on their bikes while shooting automatic handguns at the group. She tried to line up her sights with the drivers, but between their automatic fire and the bikers stationed by the van shooting at them and the walkers, she was having a difficult time aiming.

Victoria aimed her Beretta 8000 cougar at the guys by the van and just started shooting allowing Leila to get a shot at the bikers. She popped off three rounds and struck one biker in the head, while the other one panicked and lost his balance, causing him to knock over his bike and skid across the road.

The bikers were getting pissed at this point and started laying down heavy fire with their assault rifles. The one biker who had crashed had gotten to his feet and pulled out an SBG Tactical Katana. Victoria saw him limping towards her and Leila, she tried to shoot him, but her gun had run out of bullets. She quickly ejected the clip and tried to put in a new one, but the man quickly attacked her.

She reached for her crossbow, but he brought his blade down on her and she could only use it to block his attack. She struggled for a moment as Leila went to take a shot at the assailant until she was struck in the shoulder by a stray bullet. She fell to the ground as the bikers started to advance on them.

Across the way, Jessie and Paul were struggling to reload as Eli had just reloaded his shotgun. Jessie carefully peaked up from his cover and spotted the bike that belonged to Evan's victim crashed near the van. It was hard to see, but the ground around the bike was soaked in what he could guess was gasoline.

"Shoot the bike!" Jessie said to Eli and Paul. The two nodded as Jessie readied his GSG522 submachine gun and the three fired at the bike. Sparks flew as one of them managed to ignite the gasoline which set off a chain reaction blowing up both the bike and the van.

The bikers surrounded by the van were sent flying away in a fiery blaze as Victoria managed to hold off the biker long enough for Leila to raise her dagger and stab the man in the back of the head.

She quickly pushed the man off of her. She was about to get up from the ground when she spotted Evan fighting off a walker. Its jaw was snapping away at her face as she pressed her bat against its throat, holding it back.

Victoria quickly picked up her crossbow, aimed through the scope and fired an arrow through the flesh eaters head. The arrow was stuck in its head with both ends sticking out of the sides of his head, before being shoved aside by Evan.

Johnny was tending to Lester, whose leg was very badly injured by the biker as everyone else started to climb out of their hiding spots.

"Is everyone okay?" Jessie called out.

"No, Leila was shot in the arm." Victoria called out. "Who has the med kit?"

"I do." Leila grunted as she set the white box down on the ground. Victoria grabbed the box and opened it up and grabbed the rubbing alcohol, needle and thread and went to work. She may not have had enough schooling, but she did know the basics.

"Lester's leg is pretty bad, and I have a small cut on my shoulder." Johnny called out.

"Bring him over, I'll take a look and see how bad it is." Leila grunted as Victoria applied the alcohol.

Everyone was gathering themselves and reloading their weapons as they surveyed the area. The bikers were dead, but a few of them got away. Paul knew that they were on their way to get backup. He let out a loud curse, before catching Evan looting one of the corpses.

"Oh please, don't help or anything!" Paul shouted at the young girl.

"Hey, we just wasted a lot of ammo killing these assholes and its not like we're gonna be able to just buy more bullets, so this is what we gotta do. So, this right here is me helping!"

"Guys!" Jessie shouted.

"I know, Jessie. We'll argue…later." Paul muttered that last part out as he saw what Jessie was seeing. A yard away from them was an army of walkers and they were heading their way. "Everyone, inside the store, now!"

Johnny and Eli helped Lester to his feet as Evan grabbed one to the discarded Uzi's on the ground. Paul grabbed the biker's chain off the ground and he quickly followed everyone else into the store.

They were in the vestibule of the store and Paul and Jessie quickly closed the doors and barred them with shopping carts and charcoal displays that were left out, before moving into the actual store. Eli and Victoria slid the doors shut and Paul slid the chain through the railings and locked it with a padlock he used to use for his locker.

Everyone else started to pile the scratch off and coin star machines in front of the doors. Everyone quickly backed away and turned on their flashlights to see the entire room shrouded in darkness.

"Well, this is fucked." Paul snapped.

"I've heard that before." Leila chuckled as she fastened a bandage around her arm. "C'mon, we've been in tough spots before. We can get out of this."

"She's right." Jessie explained. "Let's focus on getting that generator and some supplies and then we'll figure out on how to get the hell out of here."

"Okay, if this store is like the one I work for, then they should have some over home supply section and if not then we head to the back." Paul explained.

"What about the rest of us?" Lester asked as her reloaded his revolver.

"Okay, Leila, how are you feeling?" Jessie asked as the young woman loaded a new clip into her father's rifle.

"Locked and loaded." Leila stated.

"Okay, you, Evan and Victoria are on scavenging. Eli, Paul and I will search for the generator. Johnny and Lester. You guys will guard the door." Everyone agreed and went off.

Evan handed the Uzi to Lester, who was slouched against a register. Johnny joined him as Leila handed Victoria the sword from earlier.

"You'll need something sharper than that crowbar of yours." Leila reassured as she drew her dagger. "Save your ammo."

Evan grabbed a nearby shopping cart and threw her bat in it as she followed her friends into the store.

Due to the lack of light it was hard to see in the store, but Leila had a gas-powered lantern that lit up a good portion of the area they were traveling in. They went over to the food section, hoping to get lucky and find some food that wasn't stale or rotten. They were not shocked to see the shelves mostly bare, minus some canned veggies and beans. Then they went over to the water section and they were lucky enough to get some bottled water and vitamin water, but aside from that everything else was gardening products and grills.

Evan rolled her cart down one aisle, greeted with the occasional bumps. She shined her flashlight down on the floor and saw multiple discarded bullet casings and shotgun shells. She let out a shaky breath as she scanned the shelves for anything useful but found nothing. She was starting to get nervous, what if there was no generator and they had to leave empty handed, then they would lose all that meat and the medicine would be lost and then of course there was the risk of the bikers following them back home.

Her trail of thoughts was broken when she felt something grab onto her ankle, causing her to trip and land face first on the floor. She looked down at her feet and she gasped when a former employee, now walker, was snapping at her feet. She went for her gun, but she grabbed nothing but her waist band. She cursed as it must have fallen out when she tripped, and her baseball bat was out of reach in the shopping cart. She panicked and started kicking at its face, while two more walkers started to lurk towards her.

She was starting to panic, before Leila and Victoria came to her rescue. Victoria stabbed the walker on Evan with her new sword while Leila stabbed the other walker in the center of its head with her dagger and shooting the other in between the eyes with her M9 pistol.

"Are you okay?" Victoria asked, helping Evan to her feet.

"Yes, thank you two." She said as she searched for her Glock.

She found it next to the wheel of her shopping cart and she would need it as more walkers started to pop up one by one. She raised her pistol at one of them, but it was quickly shot down as were the others. Everyone's ears were ringing from the gunfire as Jessie and his team had come back from their search.

"Are you guys okay?" Paul asked. He was aiming his .45 and flashlight just like Jessie had showed him as Jessie gathered everyone around him.

"Yeah, we're still here." Leila chuckled sarcastically. "How about you guys, is there a generator anywhere?"

"Back room on the top shelf, just like I said." Paul smiled. "And there is a working fork lift in the back and a big rig. We can stock up as much food as we can and plow right through these bastards."

"Sounds good to me." Eli said. "Let's get the boys from up front and we can-"

He was cut off by the sounds of gunfire and screaming in the direction from where they had left the boys. Everyone ran up front as fast as they could and found the boys hiding behind a register as bullets flew through the door they had just blocked. The walkers were slipping through the broken glass as fire erupted from the vestibule.

"What the hell is happening?" Victoria asked.

"Those fucking bikers!" Paul snapped as he cocked his shotgun and started to blind fire into the doorway. While he was busy shooting, Jessie and Leila ran over to the boys and quickly helped them out of hiding.

"What happened?" Jessie asked them. Johnny spoke up first.

"It's like what Paul said, those bikers rolled up outside and just started throwing those fire bottles into the area we blocked off. That lured the walkers into the store, but they were still stuck behind the blockade, that's when they started shooting."

"Jessie, the walkers are breaking through the doors!" Paul shouted at his friend as Eli and Leila were shooting the walkers through the glass.

"Everyone, to the back room now!" Jessie shouted. Everyone was gathering to get out of the front end of the store, but as they were leaving an explosion was set off by the flames.

The explosion destroyed the doors and the blockade as everyone was knocked down. They were all disoriented and walkers were starting to pour in. Paul staggered to his feet and aimed his shotgun at an oncoming walker. He fired his gun, but the recoil knocked on his ass as more and more walkers started to stagger into the store.

"Aw, shit!" He grunted. He aimed his shotgun at another one, but the gun clicked empty. He struggled for his .45 as Leila and Jessie stood before him firing their assault rifles at the small herd of walkers.

"To the back room, go!" Leila shouted. Eli grabbed Paul by his shoulder and carried him away as Johnny pushed Lester in his cart.

Victoria and Evan were holding the doors open as everyone soon followed through. Paul regained his composure long enough for him make his way to the fork lift and eventually the generator. "Hold them off while I get the generator, then I can use the life to block the door!"

"Okay!" Eli shouted, cocking his shotgun. He pushed through the door and watched as Leila and Jessie had emptied their rifles at the walkers. Eli aimed his shotgun at the walkers and started blasting them away one by one.

Evan ran out and joined him, firing her Glock at them as well, but due to the darkness and the explosion her aim was off, she only ended up kill a few walkers, before Victoria and Johnny came out firing their guns.

"Shit, there's too many of them!" Johnny shouted as his repeater ran out and he switched to his Sig.

"Get inside!" Jessie ordered, blasting his machinegun at the walkers. When his clip ran dry he and everyone else started to barricade the doors with whatever they could and held the doors closed for as long as they could. "God dammit, Paul Hurry!"

"I'm coming!" He shouted as Jessie watched him pick up the generator from the top shelf with the lift.

"Jessie," Leila shouted as she pushed back against the door. "If we don't make it out of this, I want you to know that I am glad to have met all of you!"

"We will make it out of this I promise!" Jessie shouted back.

"Where is this coming from!?" Victoria asked.

"Just, try and be strong if not all of us make it." Leila assured her.

"Hey guys," Evan said. "I'm sorry I was dicking around with those corpses earlier. I should have been looking out for us."

"You were looking out for us, just keep your eyes open for future runs." Jessie said.

"Look out!" Paul shouted. Everyone jumped out of the way as he came barreling through with a fork lift full of charcoal and fire logs. He blocked the way and he quickly hopped off the fork lift. "Okay, let's get the hell out of here, now!"

"What about the bikers, they're the ones who shot at us!" Johnny stated.

"We've got this big rig, we'll load up all of our stuff and get the hell out of here, running over the walkers and those little pussy biker bitches." Paul said.

"Or, maybe I can use the rig to distract them both long enough for you guys to get away."

Everyone turned towards Leila who was loading a clip with bullets. She looked up to everyone and shrugged after she loaded her clip into the rifle.

"I can keep them busy long enough for you guys to get away." She stated in a low tone.

"That's suicide." Jessie said.

"Not if you're already dead." She mumbled. Everyone was confused by what she had mean, until she turned around and pulled her long dark brown hair way from her right shoulder. Everyone gasped when they saw a large, red bite mark dripping down her back.

"No, how did this happen?" Paul asked in a hushed voice.

"After that explosion. I was so buys worrying about everyone else that I didn't even see one of the walker clerks behind the register."

"Shit, this is all my fault, I saw those propane tanks and I didn't move them." Paul muttered.

"No, it's mine," Jessie admitted. "I wanted to get everyone out of here so fast that I didn't clear out the store first."

"It's no one's fault guys, it just happened." Leila assured them. "Just like my father's Alzheimer's, there was nothing that could have been done different. I am going to take the rig and a couple of other back to our trucks and then you guys are gonna load up and get out of here."

"Leila, no."

"We don't have time, it's now or never." She snapped as she removed her golden cross necklace from around her neck and slipped it through the small handle on top of her rifle.

"Fuck it!" Paul snapped, cocking his shotgun as he approached the back door. "There isn't a lot of walkers out there. I say we take them out quietly and make our way to the truck. Then we go from there."

"Paul!" Victoria snapped.

"Now or never!"

And with that he stormed out of the building and started stabbing away with his buck knife. Jessie looked back at his crew and he watched as everyone started saying their goodbyes.

"I'm sorry." Victoria whimpered.

"I'm not." Leila said. "It's what my parents taught me."

Evan hugged her as did Johnny. He handed her the Uzi Lester was using earlier. "It's got half a clip. Make it count."

"I will." She chuckled. Eli walked up to her and handed her a bottle of scotch that was down to the bottom of the glass.

"Make this count too." He chuckled. She smiled and took the bottle from him, downing the contents with one gulp.

"I feel stronger already." She chuckled. "You take care of everyone now."

"I'll try."

She nodded and followed Paul outside. Jessie followed him, trying not to trip over the dead bodies that Paul had left as they joined him in the cab. He was busy hotwiring the truck, before Jessie reached up into the sun visor and pulled out the spare keys. He dangled them in front of Paul who snatched them out of his hand and started up the truck.

The drive was short and tense as they made it to the outskirts of the store and to their vehicles. Jessie and Paul both stepped out of the truck and they both looked back at Leila who just smiled.

"Well…I guess this is it."

"Yeah…thank you." Jessie said in a shaky voice. "You're a good person."

"And you're a good man, both of you." She called out to Paul. He said nothing and just nodded.

"Okay, I'm gonna go now, like I said, you be strong. Things are only gonna get worse from here on out." They both nodded, and she smiled as she drove the truck away. The two of them watched as she drove towards the store honking her horn and shooting at the walkers.

It didn't take long for the bikers to notice as a few of them came out and started shooting at her. She drove off, luring both the bikers and walkers away from the store.

 **(!)**

Leila lured the bikers away from the store and into the city of Macon. She managed to kill one of the bikers with the Uzi before it ran out, switching to her M9 pistol. She didn't get as lucky with that when one of the biker's road up alongside the passenger side and shot out the tire with his sawed-off shotgun.

The truck swerved out of control for a minute, before turning over, breaking off from the container it was carrying. Leila turned managed to lift herself out of the wreckage with her rifle, stumbling onto the road.

She aimed her rifle at the man who had shot her, but he quickly ducked behind the truck. The bullets bounced off the truck as she continued firing, only for the man to sneak up from behind her, finishing her off with a shotgun shell to the back.

The man stood over her dead body, reloading his gun as the rest of his men rode up to him on their bikes.

"You see that, you aim and shoot. It's not that hard and don't waste time talking. That is why they killed how many of us now, ten or fifteen?"

"Crow…"

"Stop. I don't want to hear anything except where they are and how many, okay." Crow said as he looked down at Leila. "Damn, shame we had to kill her. I never did like spilling young blood, especially a nice little lady like her."

"She killed a lot of us, Crow." One of his men said.

"And that is why I like her so much."

The man who had spoken to crow let out a horrific scream hat was followed by snarling. Everyone looked down to see Leila with her fingers digging into his leg and her teeth tearing apart his ankle.

Everyone was either grabbing at their friend or Leila, trying like hell to pry her off. Crow didn't waste another second before pulling out his bayonet and stabbing it into the left side of Leila's head killing her instantly.

"That's odd, I killed her." Crow stated as his men tended to the injured man. He knelt next to her and examined the bite mark on her right shoulder.

"See, she was bitten. That's why she came back." One of his men stated.

"I killed her though, the bites infect you, kill you and then bring you back." Crow explained. "I killed her, and she still came back."

"Yeah, but she was bitten, and that shit infects your brain, she didn't die from a head shot so she came back."

Crow wasn't convinced.

"Hey, you said that military checkpoint was tampered with, right?" Crow asked.

"Yeah, we hadn't had a chance to investigate."

"Well get on it. I think I might have an idea who had touched our shit."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Rotten Meat**

 **Authors Note: Hey everyone I am back. Sorry for the delay, I was busy playing that new Spiderman video game and it is freaking awesome I love it so much then Red Dead Redemption 2 came out and I have been playing that and it is freaking epic. I have also been preoccupied with other B.S. but no bother I am here now, and I am ready to deliver a new chapter I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.**

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Marty and Ann were out in the fields away from the ranch with a few other parents as Gregory and Tripp taught the kids and a few adults how to shoot. A few parents were strongly against the idea of their children shooting guns, but after what Ann told everyone about how the bikers had Olivia hostage they were a little more willing to have the adults teach everyone a few new tricks.

Trippy and Gregory set up some bottles and cans on their fence as they handed out handguns to each of the settlement members. A lot of them did good for the most part, while some were lucky enough to hit one bottle on the fifth try.

Olivia was a natural while Marty's wife Donna and Drew were a little off, but they would get better with time. Olivia was making friends with another girl her age by the name of, Mary. They were cracking jokes and laughing as they fired their guns and hit their targets.

"Great job!" Olivia exclaimed. Mary nodded and emptied the shells from her .38 as she smiled at Olivia.

"Thank you for helping me learn how to shoot, Olivia." Mary said.

"I think that is enough for today." Trippy said. "We only have so many bullets to spare, but ya'll did very good today."

"Thanks." Olivia said as Trippy smiled and patted her head. Ann noticed that the smile was a false gesture as he looked back to his meat locker.

"I'm sure they will be back soon." Ann assured. "This isn't the first time that they have been out on a scavenger hunt."

"I believe you, but I am still nervous." Trippy said as he ran a hand through his grey hair. "That cooler has been down for almost seven hours, the meat inside has maybe until the end of the day, before it all spoils."

"I know you are worried, but we still have the veggies we harvested, and Aaron and his wife Olivia are out hunting right now with Mac'carty." Marty explained as he took his .45 revolver back from his son.

"Have either one of them ever hunted before?" Gregory asked him. Marty shrugged.

"They wouldn't have offered if they didn't know how."

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to the dust road that lead to the ranch. Both Jessie and Lester's vehicles road down the dirt road, towards Trippy's house. Everyone was excited to see both vehicles back in one piece and they quickly started crowding around them, but they noticed that something was wrong. Everyone who stepped out of the vehicles had red tear stained eyes or solemn faces.

"What happened?" Marty asked. That's when he noticed they were one person short. "Where is Leila?"

"Where do you think?" Paul snapped as he stormed past everyone. Johnny stepped out of Jessie's SUV and Marty quickly embraced his young friend. The two pulled away and Marty was confused at what had happened.

"Those fucking bikers, they came out of nowhere and we were forced to take cover in the store. Then the walkers started swarming in and one of them bit her. She managed to hijack a vehicle and draw them away. She saved us all."

"Did you get the generator?" Ezra said. "At least tell us the trip wasn't a total loss."

"Yeah, yeah Ezra we got the fucking generator and food and water, and I also got this." Johnny snapped as he pulled out baseball bat. Without another word, Johnny lunged at the young man, causing a small riot in the group.

"All you do is bitch and whine, while the rest of us work to keep everyone safe and fed, what the hell do you do to help?" Johnny snapped as Marty held him back. Ezra spat at the boy as Jessie restrained him from pulling out his Glock.

"I look after my girlfriend you, fucking dick!" He shouted back. "Hell, all you, assholes ever do is start fights and bring those undead bastards' home, hell the whole reason those bikers are after us to begin with is because Paul fucking killed a bunch of them and then you guys killed them at that supply store."

"Yeah, and who killed some back at the diner, I think it was you if I recall!" Johnny snapped. Jessie managed to grab Ezra's glock and get it away from him as Marty took away the bat. That's when Ezra gave Johnny a smug grin as he lowered his hands to his belt, near the grip of his Raging Bull revolver.

"What was I supposed to do, just let my girl die like you let your mom die?"

Johnny lunged at Ezra, his switchblade in hand as Ezra's revolver flew out, but Johnny had tackled him to the ground before he could get a shot. Everyone quickly swarmed in and managed to tear the two apart from one another as Jessie grabbed the gun from Ezra.

Marty grabbed Johnny and dragged him back to his cabin. Everyone started to calm down as Ann Mac'carty came back from her hunting trip with Aaron and Olivia, they were dragging a wagon with a dead deer in the back when they came upon the ruckus.

"What the hell happened?" Ann asked as her sister Angela embraced her.

"Leila's dead." She whispered as she fought back the strong urge to cry.

"Shit…" Ann snapped as she hugged her sister.

"Look, I'm sorry for what happened, truly." Trippy said. "But we have to get the generator up and running. Gregory, you rig it up for us while I get this deer to the barn for skinning."

"You got it, Pa." Gregory said as he grabbed the generator and made his way out into the fields. Trippy grabbed the deer wagon and made his way to the farm as everyone else prepared for dinner.

Clary Evans and Harper Smith helped set up the plates and silverware on the tables when Clary broke down sobbing. Rose sat her down at the table and just let her cry until the sun nearly set over the hills.

"I thought it would be easier when my brother disappeared, but here I am. Another person is dead, and I am still here doing nothing. Just crying." She whimpered. Harper said nothing as she stood up and grabbed her Winchester Model 70 rifle.

"Then I think it's time we do something." Harper said. "I am an orphan. I have no brothers or sisters. No one would miss me when I die, but these guys have been taking care of you and me since we showed up at that diner and I am not gonna sit down and cry while some assholes keep trying to kill us, dead or otherwise."

"What do you think we should do?" Clary asked.

"Tomorrow, we go out and practice how to shoot, how to fight, hunt and whatever else it is we need to do when danger comes. Are you in or out?"

Clary said nothing and reached into the back of her pants and pulled out a HK45 V-1 handgun.

"I found this on the bikers back at the diner." She said as she held the gun loosely in her hand. "I didn't want to give it up, but I didn't want to use it either, but in a world where the dead rise and the living kill I don't think being a victim is a choice anymore."

"No, but if you kept it then that must mean you were done being a victim." Harper said.

"Tomorrow?" Clary asked to which Harper nodded.

"Tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Trippy had finished skinning and gutting the deer for any meat he could as his son fixed up the generator. He bagged the rest of the meat just as he heard the cooler running, the generator was up and running.

"We're all set down here, Pa." Gregory said from Trippy's walkie talkie. The hold man unclipped the radio and spoke into it with a tired voice.

"Okay, I'll get some of the steaks out of the freezer and get some super ready."

"Are you okay, Pa?" His boy asked from the other end.

"Yeah, just a rough day is all." Trippy said as he unlocked the freezer door and carried the meat inside. He shuddered from the cold as he made his way to the back. That's when he heard the growling.

"Honey, you know you're not suppose to be moving around in here." He called out to the darkness. He reached into his belt and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "I knows it's been rough, but I just need you to hold on a little while longer, okay?"

The growling was faint as he moved into the back of the freezer, but he knew she was back there behind the shelves. He slowly crept behind the shelves, only to be tackled by a female walker.

The deer meat packages scattered all over the floor as Trippy struggled to keep the woman from biting at his face.

"Darlin', it's okay." He grunted. He grabbed her by the throat to keep her from biting at him, before pressing his boot to her stomach, kicking her off him. She flew into a shelf and knocked a few jars on the floor. Trippy watched as she slipped around on the icy floor, her palms recklessly sliding around on the broken glass of the jars.

"Darlin', you're bleeding all over the place." He reached out on the floor and picked up the handcuffs he had dropped and moved closer to the walker. "We just have to wait until our boys in Washington fix up a cure and get you taken care of, but until then."

He quickly tacked her to the ground and he managed to cuff her hands together, before binding her feet with his belt.

"It's okay, I got you I love you."

He said, holding her from behind and rocking her back and forth.

"I love you darlin', I love you." He said as he got up from the ground and started to collect the bags of deer meat off the floor. He set them on the shelf and collected the steaks he promised everyone for dinner. He took one last look at the walker on the floor and let out another sigh, before exiting, never once noticing the black blood on one of the torn bags.

The next morning everyone had a small memorial service for Leila, but the only people who did not show were Ezra, Mercedes and Paul. No one said much of anything, other than how brave she was and how she kept everyone safe. No one knew what else to say about a woman they had only known for a week, but despite all that her death left hole in a lot of people's hearts.

After that, the day went on as normal. Harper and Clary went to gun training with Jessie and Ann Nixon while Ann Mac'Carty went out hunting with Eli. Everyone else either tended the garden, kept patrol or worked on the cars.

Clary held her handgun and lined up the sights with the can on the fence as best as she could. She squeezed the trigger and jumped when the gun fired and ended up dropping the gun into the dirt.

"Clary," Jessie sighed while massaging his temples. She blushed in embarrassment and picked up her gun, brushing off the dirt. "Here let me show you."

He moved behind her and placed his hands over hers, guiding them into the proper aiming position. He leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"Take a deep breath and let it out when you pull the trigger, but don't lock your elbows either and line up the V with that little peg at the front of the barrel. Then shoot."

Clary let out a deep breath and aligned her sights with the tin can on the fence once again. She let out one last breath and fired. The can went flying off the fence and she couldn't help but giggle.

"I got it." She said in a shaky tone.

"Great job." Jessie chuckled.

"Yeah, great job." Harper chuckled as she pulled the bolt on her rifle and fired a round into a glass bottle. She chuckled as the glass popped and shattered all over the place.

"Nice," Jessie cheered. "You two are getting better."

"Yeah, but these are just bottles." Clary sighed. "What if we come across Walkers or people like those bikers, they aren't just going to sit still and let us shoot them."

"Yeah, I know, but I trust you guys to do what is right when the time comes, hell you already have when you went with Paul to help get the big rig and save us from the diner."

"Well, here's hoping we keep getting luckier from here on out." Clary shrugged as she looked around at all the other people that took refuge at the ranch. She watched as Jason, one of the last soldiers at camp, teach Mary how to shoot properly as her parents watched in concern.

"You know, if this were an average day, she would be in school, her parents would be at work and Jason would be running drills at his base." Clary sighed. "And me and my brother…I don't know what we would be doing right now. Why did this bullshit have to happen?"

"I don't know, we must have screwed up at some point and the big guy upstairs must have deemed us unworthy." Jessie sighed as he fumbled around with his grandfathers watch, his thumb rub over the smooth side of the bullet that was permanently indented on the watch.

He was broken from his trance when Harper and Clary approached him. He handed Clary his watch.

"My grandfather's lucky watch." He stated. "That watch was the only thing keeping that bullet from reaching his heart."

"Awesome!" Harper chuckled.

"Yeah, he took part in one of history's greatest battles and lived, only for this to happen." Jessie let out another heavy breath as Clary handed him his watch back. "I'm gonna go find Paul and Eli and see if they have any more booze."

Jessie stormed off leaving Harper and Clary behind. Clary looked at Harper confused at what had just happened, the teenager just shrugged and slung her rifle over her shoulder.

"I guess after all that fighting and surviving, he's never had the chance to let it sink in that the way we lived our lives are over and this is our new way of life now."

"Yeah, I can relate." Clary sighed.

"We all can."

(!)

It was dinner time once more and Trippy had made some venison for the community with the deer that Aaron had caught yesterday. Everyone ate in silence with only a few whispers and the scratching of knives and forks against plates.

"This is very good, thank you Trippy." Eliza complimented. Trippy smiled and waved it off.

"Thank Angela, she's the one that helped cook it too."

"And don't forget to thank my sister and Aaron for getting the meat." The young woman chuckled as she bumped her shoulder against her sister.

"And maybe we should thank Leila for helping everyone get the generator." Ann Mac'Carthy suggested.

A lot of people immediately went tense as they all stopped eating. Paul looked down at his plate and he almost threw his food up all over it. After a long silence Marty raised his glass of iced tea.

"To Leila," He said as he a few other raised their glasses. "For saving us and helping me find my family."

"To Leila," A new voice called out. "For killing a hell of a lot of men, even in death she managed to kill one of my men."

Everyone looked at the man before them as he had a raised a flask in the air. He had long, straight black hair, followed by a neatly trimmed beard. His ice blue eyes pierced through everyone like a knife every time he glanced over at them.

Paul recognized the biker vest over his leather jacket, and he saw the president badge on the right side of his chest. He was the leader of the Proctors.

Paul stood from his chair and aimed his .45 at the man, who aimed his Sawed-Off at Paul.

"Everyone calm down and listen and I'll be out of your hair in a few seconds." The man said. "My name is, Crow. I am the Atlanta chapter of the Proctors and I need you all to listen to what I have to say."

No one said anything, but Olivia noticed that her friend Mary was looking a little sick.

"Are you okay?" She whispered to her friend. Mary slowly shook her head.

"My stomach hurts." She moaned as her mother wrapped and arm around her.

"It's okay, baby." Her mother whispered. "You just ate too fast, we'll get you in bed soon enough."

"Now, you assholes from the diner have been fucking me for almost a month and I am quite agitated." He said in an obnoxious voice. "You've killed my boys, stole our fuel and our guns."

"And you tried to rob me, assault my new friends and led a hoard of undead at us and not to mention killed my friend. You brought this on yourself." Paul snarled.

"Well, unfortunately for you guys I don't play to get even I play to win." He chuckled, nodding off to the woods. "We've been watching you guys since last night. We missed you at the military checkpoint. We were busy scavenging that grocery store, we just didn't plan on running into you in the process."

"So, it was you who set up that blockade." Paul sneered.

"Oh yes, we had great set up there, dumbasses drive through, we rob them and that was that, but thanks to you assholes, we're down in number and we were running low on food, that's why we didn't meet at the road block and now once again we're down even more numbers. I'm bragging, I'll make you people a deal. The people who showed up from the diner, you let me, and my men take them and some of your meat and we will leave you all alone. I swear on the cross."

He flipped an automatic rifle that was slung on his shoulder into his hand and grabbed it by the grip. Paul narrowed his eyes at the small golden cross that dangled from the handle on top.

"That was, Leila's gun." Paul growled through his teeth.

"Mine now."

"Mary!"

Everyone, but Paul, had turned to see Mary fall on the ground as her parents hovered over her. Her mother was going ballistic as her father tried to give her CPR.

"She's not breathing." Her father gasped.

"She said it was something she ate." Olivia said from her mother's embrace.

"Mary!" Her mother screamed as blood started pouring from her husband's face. He let out a horrific scream as Mary pulled him down and sunk his teeth into his face.

Jessie pulled Mary off her father as her mother went in to her daughter. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she called out her daughter's name in broken sobs. She reached a hand out to her daughter who stared back at her with her colorless eyes.

"Stay back!" Ann Mac'Carty shouted, but it was too late as Mary sunk her teeth into her mother's hand, ripping a good chunk out.

Ivory quickly wrapped a bundle of paper towels around her hand as everyone started to panic.

"How the fuck did this happen?" Eli shouted.

"The meat, it's the fucking meat!" Johnny shouted.

"Hey Crow, check this out." Another voice called out as a big guy walked out from behind the house with something slung over his right shoulder. "We were raiding the fridge like you said and these crazy bastards had this tied up with the meat."

The man dropped the object on the ground, and everyone gasped when they saw it was a walker, with its skin peeling off.

"They had _that_ in the freezer?" Crow asked, cringing when a chunk of its hair fell off from its thrashing.

"Yeah, it was bleeding all over the place, the freezer smelled like shit. We just left the meat, we don't trust anything in there."

"And with good reason." Crow chuckled as he nodded to the girl and her family. "Wow, I thought you guys were smart and here you are eating rotten meat. We'll leave you guys to grieve and clean up, but for those of you who haven't eaten the rotten meat you have until sundown tomorrow to give me the diner crew or I feed all of you the rotten corpse of, Leila Watson."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Infected**

 **Authors Note: Hey it's Shadow Knight1121…I got nothing. Nah, as always thank you all for your reviews and feedback and I can't wait to see what you think of this next chapter. Sorry for the long wait I went on a cruise for vacation, got sunburned and when I came back work was just kicking my ass. So, hopefully this chapter will make up for it and more to come. Enjoy!**

 **Authors Note: I do not own The Walking Dead.**

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Crow and his men had left, not taking anyone or anything with him. Everyone was still in shock after what had happened with Mary. Everyone waited to see what would happen after they had eaten the meat that had killed Mary. No one had turned so far, but everyone had been worried sick after what they had just witnessed.

Trippy had locked his infected wife in the freezer with the meat he fed everyone at camp. He never once considered what would happen by doing this and now it has happened. A little girl was now amongst the undead and had killed her father and injured her mother.

Paul was pissed as was everyone else, but he was beyond rage. He didn't know what he was feeling, but every fiber of his being wanted Trippy dead.

"Why?" He snarled as Trippy held his undead wife in his arms.

He had gagged her with a bandanna to keep her from biting him, but she still tried to bite him as she struggled in his arms. He held her tight as he kept her head nestled in his shoulder while stroking her messy hair, not paying any attention to Paul.

Enraged, Paul stomped over towards the older man, shoving Jessie aside when he tried to stop him, grabbing his undead wife and violently throwing her to the ground as he grabbed Trippy by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up so the two were at eye level.

"Why, why would you keep her locked up with the damn food!" Paul shouted as Lester and Gregory went to aid their father, but Paul pulled out his .45 and pressed the barrel of his gun under the old man's chin. The two backed away, but they stayed close enough, just in case.

"I'm not gonna ask twice." Paul growled.

"S-She was infected…she got bit when we were helping some kids get away from those things at the local grocery store. It wasn't anywhere fatal, but the sickness was setting in. I didn't know what to do, there was no cure. I was listening to the radio on the way home and they said they were working on a cure in Washington."

"So, you locked mom in the freezer?" Lester snapped. "Why did you tell us that she had died in town?"

"I knew you boys would try to convince me that she was gone, and you'd want to…kill her. I heard the way you talked about those things out there. How you ran them over like they were nothing or shot them like sick dogs."

"Dad, they aren't sick they are dead." Gregory said. He pointed down at his mother who was still on the ground snapping her jaw at Paul, who was seven feet away and with those restraints she wasn't getting any closer. "Mom is dead, she wouldn't act like that if she was sick and if that bite didn't kill her then sticking her in the meat locker would, seriously what the hell were you thinking?"

"Dad, that isn't one of those freeze chambers we've seen in those sci-fi movies, you stick her in there she freezes to death, she doesn't go into a timeless sleep and wake up like nothing happened. I mean look at her, her skin is blue and chapped from frostbite. Even if she was cured, she would be dead." Trippy was on the verge of tears, holding his trembling hands up to his sons.

"When a cure is made-"

"THERE. IS NO. FUCKING. CURE!" Paul shouted so loud that it echoed throughout the hills.

Everyone was shocked when he had said that. Aside from the crickets and bugs in the forest and the walker growls on the ground there was dead silence. Before anyone could get a word out, Paul went off again.

"Have you ever seen anyone cure death?" He said. "A person get's his jugular ripped out, but he gets right up to his feet and starts walking around, or how about the people who died in a car crash, they weren't bitten, but they're another mindless husk amongst the walking dead."

"Paul." Jessie called out, but the young man ignored him.

"My mother, she was hit by a car, her neck was broken, and I had to listen to her dying breath as everyone around me ignored us. Imagine my surprise when my mother, with a broken neck, shot up from the ground and tackled me to the dirt her jaw was snapping and her nails clawing at my eyes. How can a pill or a shot going to cure a broken neck?" He was growing more hysterical by the second. "It can't because there is no cure for when you're dead."

"I don't understand."

"We're born, we live, we die and then we are undead, because we are all infected!"

It was like a knife through everyone's heart. No one could believe what they had just heard or maybe they didn't want to believe it.

Ezra thought back to when he killed those bikers back at the diner. He thought that they were groveling in pain, but he knew those shots he fired were fatal. They weren't groveling, they were turning. Then Jessie thought back to Paul and how he always took a knife to the corpses that were gunned down. Then there was the rise of the dead to begin with.

' _How did it spread from America, Canada, Russia, Europe and some mountain towns, why didn't it just take everyone down instead of a handful of people here and there?'_ He had asked these questions thousands of times in the past and now he had his answers _. 'Because the average person is likely to die in a car crash, construction accident and suicide all of which are not caused by head trauma and then there is dying of a heart attack or just old age. We die and then come back as a mindless husk and like death itself there is nothing, we can do about it.'_

He jumped when someone fired off a gunshot a few feet away from him. Then another and a third as everyone screamed or scurried away from the gunfire.

Ezra stood over the little family that had succumbed to the tainted meat, his magnum in hand as smoke flowed out from the barrel. Everyone looked at him in shock and horror, no one knew what to do or say.

"What the fuck, Ezra!?" Jessie shouted.

"Hey, don't give me any of your shit. The girl was undead, her father was dead and her mom was begging me to do it. I wouldn't have done it otherwise." Ezra grunted as he aimed his gun at Trippy.

"Whoa," Eli tackled Ezra to the ground as Trippy's boys went to stand in front of their father to protect him. "What the hell is your problem?"

"Are you kidding me, he fucking left a walker in the freezer with our food and thanks to him a little girl is dead, hell the whole fucking family is dead!"

"Because you killed them!" Angela Mac'Carthy snapped as her sister Ann held her close.

"They were on an inevitable course of becoming walkers and it's because this asshole left a rotting, infected corpse with our food. What if this was your sister or Marty what if this was your wife and son, who you fought like hell to get to?!"

Marty shuddered at the thought as he held his wife Donna and son Drew close.

"I didn't know!" Trippy sobbed. "I didn't know there wasn't a cure." He fell to his knees as his boys stood by him. Lester kneeled down next to him.

"What happened to mom, you said she was bitten and turned at the market." Lester asked.

"She did get bitten, but I didn't leave her there. I brought her back and locked her in the freezer. I don't know why!" He wailed. "I just…I was a damn fool. She was bitten, she died and she came back as a monster and I ended up killing that poor family and endangering that family. I am sorry, but I will not let that happen again. These bikers have been causing you folks trouble and they killed your friend. I am not gonna let that happen again. Those assholes are not gonna take anyone else."

"Pa, we can't risk the lives of everyone else for a handful of people we just met." Gregory protested. Trippy grabbed his son by the collar of his shirt. The two were now face two face, Trippy's face was enraged as he started talking through his gritted teeth.

"Boy, this ranch goes back over a hundred years, my grandfather fought off crooks no different than the bikers and helped people no different than the people they are after. If you even think about screwing them over to those animals, I will beat you black and green, you understand me?"

"Yes, sir." Gregory grunted.

"To be fair, even if you did give the diner folk up to the bikers, they would probably just come back and finish off the rest of us. It's not like they have anything to lose." Jason explained as he readied his rifle. Jessie nodded and grabbed his own rifle as he looked to the rest of the community.

"Okay, if we are going to do this then we need to plan this all out. First thing is first, anyone who doesn't want to fight, start packing. If we fail to stop them you people need to get ready to run and don't look back."

"Mr. Chang, you should stay with your family." Johnny said to his former teacher. Marty looked hesitant at first, but then he felt a small hand in his. He looked down to see his son, Drew looking up at him with fear in his eyes. Marty nodded and gripped his son's hand tight.

"Okay, I'll stick with the families who don't want to fight and help them pack." He stated.

"I'll stay behind too." Ivory said with her dog Apollo close by. She pulled back the bolt on her Colt Law Enforcement Carbine and holstered her Walther P99. "Anyone of those motorbike dickheads come near this place will be leaving with holes in their asses."

"Damn, remind me not to piss you off." Eli chuckled as he cocked his shotgun. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

(The following afternoon)

The bikers were rallying around an abandoned truck stop forty miles away from the ranch. A lot of them were tuning up their bikes while the rest were cleaning and loading their guns. Crow was sitting on top of the building looking down at his crew.

"Twenty men." He grunted "That's how many I have left and no women, this is bullshit." He snapped as he grabbed his new rifle. He checked the clip, before running his fingers over the golden cross that he still had chained through the handle on top.

"Leila…I bet you never thought that you were gonna help me massacre that whole fucking camp. First those farmers and the families, they're weak and I have no time for that. The women, well I don't need to tell you what will happen with them. The kids will grow up to be our future soldiers and then of course there is Paul. I will skin that fucker alive and screaming for bringing this hall upon us. I promise you that." He whispered, bringing the cross to his lips.

"Crow, we got someone here that wants to talk to you!" One of his boys called out from the parking lot. Crow looked down at the main gate and he was surprised to see not only Gregory, Trippy's son, but Ezra was standing next to him as well.

Crow quickly made his way down to the parking lot. He aimed his rifle at the two as did his men as the two slowly raised their hands. Crow let out a small chuckle.

"You have got balls for coming here, boy." Crow boasted, pressing the barrel of the rifle directly in the center of Ezra's forehead. "Especially since you killed my boys at that diner and stole their guns."

"Yeah, well maybe you should have told them not to try and fucking rape my woman!" Ezra snapped as he advanced on Crow, not once acknowledging the rifle barrel digging into his chest. Gregory quickly stood between the two.

"Whoa, we did not come here to start trouble, we came here to end it." He explained. "My Pa wouldn't listen to me about those diner folks, but I want to get them off our property and Ezra wants to keep his woman safe, so that's why we are here."

"They're planning something aren't they?" Crow chuckled.

"Yeah, they're setting up a road block with some old cars and farm supplies." Ezra explained. "They are planning on setting it on fire and gunning you down when you roll out there in a few days."

"Hmm, you guys are a violent bunch of assholes, aren't you?" Crow chuckled. "So, let me get this straight, you guys are telling us your plan in an effort to what, get us to spare you?"

"We would appreciate it." Gregory said, as he shifted his feet uncomfortably as he gazed around at the rest of the bikers who were starting to grab their guns, knives and other weapons. He was starting to feel his legs tremble and his breathing speed up with each passing second.

"I'll tell you what, you take my boys to this road block, they'll be a little way away, but you make it to your group and draw them out and allow my boys to swoop in and take them all out. Then we'll leave you and your family alone and even dipshit and his girlfriend."

"Fuck you." Ezra snapped.

"Alrighty boys," Crow shouted. "Let's get this party going. Drew, I want you to take twelve of our boys and go to the road block. Go on foot, we can't risk them following us."

"You got it, Crow." Drew said as he grabbed his Desert Eagle.

He stomped over to the two boys and he grabbed Ezra by the collar of his hoodie as another biker grabbed Gregory. The two shared a look as they were dragged out of the truck stop and down the lonely road.

After almost an hour of walking the two were told to go on ahead alone, so that Drew and his men get the jump on the group as they lingered behind to apprehend them.

"Hey, Marty!" Ezra called out. "We did what you asked."

Marty poked his head up from behind a broken-down car with a Remington 700 VLS slung over his shoulder. He smiled when the two, but that quickly changed when a small group of bikers appeared out from the brush all armed to the teeth.

"Drop the guns, Jap." Drew ordered; Marty just rolled his eyes as he slowly removed his rifle.

"I'm Chinese American you, racist hick!"

"Oh, well excuse me to hell." Drew retorted. "What were these two really up too?"

"They said they knew where they could get a stash of guns, but I guess you caught them before they could get them, or was it a coincidence like the grocery store?" Marty explained as he was held back by one of Drew's bikers.

"Nah, hate to break it to you my half-n-half friend, but your boys here were selling you and your family out to us in exchange for their own asses."

"I fucking knew we couldn't trust you!" Marty snapped as he went to charge at the two, but he was quickly stopped and tackled to the ground by Drew.

"Settle down, bub." He chuckled. "Now, where are the rest of your boys. I know you aren't the only one working on this blockade here, where is the rest of your group?"

"Probably at the trailer, getting those guns he told you about." Gregory stated. "There was this weird old hermit living in the woods, before all this happened. I don't know what happened to him, but he had a little arsenal at his disposal. I high powered rifle, a couple of shotguns, a cross bow and a few handguns. I didn't have enough time to grab them, on a count of the biters, so I left them there."

"Well, then let's go and get them, shall we?" Drew chuckled. His men grabbed the hostages and practically dragged them through the woods, following the directions Gregory was giving them. They hiked through the woods for a good ten minutes, before Drew got the feeling something was wrong.

"Ok, where the hell is this fucking stash?" Drew asked aiming his gun at the trio. Gregory said nothing, merely pointing at the abandoned airstream. In the middle of the woods.

"Wow, nice find." Drew chuckled. "Even the airstream looks like it's still intact." He chuckled. He walked up to the door and reached out to open the door, but he was quickly knocked on his ass by the door suddenly kicking open.

Jessie quickly stepped out of the airstream and gun down three of the bikers with his GSG 522.

Before everyone else could react, Marty pulled out his switchblade and stabbed one of the bikers in his jugular. Eli popped off a few rounds from his Five-Seven clipping a few more as Paul gun down the last two with his shotgun.

"Clear!" Paul shouted.

"God damn, I didn't think that would work." Ezra sighed heavily as he retrieved his guns.

"Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence, Ezra." Eli grunted as he aimed his pistol at Drew.

"Okay, we counted twenty at the station and we just clipped twelve of these assholes. So, that means there are eight left at the truck stop, right?" He asked, Drew, but he just remained silent. Eli gave him a kick in the stomach, hoping to get some answers.

"Fuck, yes, alright there's eight left you fucking assholes!" He snapped in between coughs.

"Thank you," Jessie snickered. He reached for his walkie and radioed Ann Nixon.

"Ann, we're all set down here. You guys can move in and finish off Crow and his gang."

Ann Nixon led a small team of Evangeline, Ann Mac'Carty, Victoria Kallen and Aaron Hannay. The plan was to use Ezra and Gregory to distract a portion of the bikers away from the garage, where they would lead them to the abandoned airstream into the woods. Once they were dealt with, Ann would take her team and finish off the rest of the bikers.

There was only one problem when Ann responded to Jessie's call.

"Jessie, the bikers…they're all gone."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Hell To Pay**

 **Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your support and reviews I am glad that you enjoy this story as much as I love writing it. I want to warn you folks this chapter will be a little heavy. I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.**

* * *

"What do you mean they are gone?" Jessie said in his walkie as the crew made their way through the woods and back to Lester's F 150. They had Drew handcuffed and dragging behind as Eli covered the rear. They decided on the one vehicle, that way they could sneak better through the woods and get the drop on Crow's gang, but now that plan went tits up when Ann Nixon showed up at their H.Q. only to find an empty garage.

"It means exactly what it means, Jessie." Ann stated. "They are gone, there's no trace of them or their bikes. This place is completely deserted."

"Shit," Paul snapped. "What do you wanna bet that they're heading to the fucking ranch right now?"

"Shit, Mercedes!" Ezra snapped as he ran in the direction of the truck.

"My wife and son are alone too." Marty snapped.

"We'll get to them," Jessie told Marty as he raised his walkie up to his mouth.

"Ann, forget the auto yard, just try and make it back to the ranch. Crow might be on his way there now!"

"How the hell-never mind, we're on our way back, but you guys need to be careful, for all we know this could be a trap." Ann shouted from her end.

"How can this be a trap?" Eli asked.

"They get us in a mad panic and pick us off while we scurry back home." Jessie explained. He looked down the path towards the truck where Ezra and Gregory hauling ass down.

"Guys, wait I have the keys!" Jessie shouted out. Ezra ignored him, before running up to the car door, only to fall face down into the mud and leaves.

He let out a few choices swears, before feeling something tugging on his boot. He was shocked to see a walker snarling and clawing at his boot. He frantically started kicking at its head with his free boot, while trying to pry his foot out from the walker's decaying fingers.

"Hang on, Ezra!" Jessie shouted right before being tackled by a nearby walker. He scowled at the foul stench of its rotten breath breathing in his face. He gripped each end of his rifle, pressing the gun under its chin to keep it from biting him, but that only meant he couldn't kill it either. It also didn't help that there was a small cluster of Walker heading his way. "Shit!"

Paul raised his shotgun and blew one of them away, but more just kept coming. Eli, who was still keeping an eye on Drew, kept his gun aimed at the hostage, while the small herd of walkers started to spread out and surround them.

"Shit, they're boxing us in!" Eli shouted, drawing his Five-Seven, while keeping his shotgun aimed at Drew. It was difficult for him to keep a panicking hostage in place while aiming a heavy shotgun with his right hand and using his left hand to pick off walkers with his handgun.

"Seriously, let me the fuck go!" Drew shouted as he slowly crept away from the oncoming walkers.

"Shut up!" Eli shouted as he fired another round into a walker's skull. Marty grabbed his hunting rifle and hopped into the back of the truck and started taking aim at the oncoming dead.

He spotted, Jessie, who was still pinned to the ground by a walker and popped it in the head. Jessie quickly shoved the walker off of him and crouched on one knee, aiming down the sights of his rifle and gunning down every walker he could spot. That included the one that was on top of Ezra.

Gregory fired his revolver at a walker while the rest of the group slowly made their way to the truck. Paul peeked his head over the cluster of walkers and noticed that Eli and drew were backed into a corner.

Paul quickly reloaded a shell into his shotgun and went to save his friend. Marty saw this and set his rifle down on the truck bed and pulled out his S&W .45 revolver. He hopped out and ran after Paul, shooting a couple walkers in his path.

Jessie quickly swapped to his GSG 522 and mowed down a few walkers in Paul's path. Eli fired his last round from his pistol into another walker's face and having no choice, he threw the handgun on the ground, swapping to his shotgun. Before he could get a shot off, Drew had rushed into him, nailing him in the gut with his shoulder.

The wind was knocked out of Eli as he fell to the ground. The former bartender rolled on the ground trying to catch his breath while Drew tried to pull his restrained hands from behind his back and under his feet. Eli reached for his kukri machete on his belt, but before he could pull it out, a gunshot rang out next to him and he watched as the left side of Drew's skull blew open, splattering blood all over the ground.

Eli was temporarily shaken at what had just happened and he was shocked when he looked up to see Marty standing over Drew with smoke coming out of the barrel of his revolver. The gun was shaking in his hand for a few seconds, until he let out along breath and lowered his gun. He used his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow, before hearing a loud scream shaking him from his trance.

Eli swung his machete down into the skull of a nearby walker, Marty aimed his revolver at another walker, only to realize he's run out of ammo.

"Shit!" He shouted as Paul fired his shotgun at the walker that was close to Marty.

"Let's go!" Paul shouted.

Marty nodded and grabbed Eli's Five-Seven and made his way to the truck. Eli holstered his machete and picked up his shotgun as Paul pulled out his Kimber Warriors 1911 pistol. He gunned down a couple of walkers in his way, clearing a path to the truck. The three jumped into the back as Jessie, who had climbed into the driver's seat, started the truck and bolted out of the forest and onto the main road.

"Holy shit!" Jessie snapped.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ezra said, while he was slouched in the passenger's seat with his hand on his chest, trying to slow his breathing. Jessie took a moment to look into the rearview mirror and he was happy to see everyone had made it. He grabbed a couple of clips, one for each of his guns and handed them to Gregory.

"Hey, do me a favor and reload my guns for me will you?"

"S-Sure." Gregory said as he grabbed Jessie rifle. The trio in the back started to clean and reload their guns as well when Jessie's Wrangler cruised up next to them. That's when his walkie went off.

"What the hell happened in the woods?" Ann Mac'Carty said from Jessie's car. Ezra grabbed the walkie and answered.

"Those fucking bikers must have seen through the plan or something." Ezra grunted. "On our way back to the truck we were surrounded by a bunch of walkers. We clipped as many as we could, but there was still plenty left."

"We, who the hell is we?" Jessie snapped. "Your ass was in truck hiding!" Ezra flipped him off as Mac'Carty replied.

"Jessie, everyone over here is freaking out." Mac'Carty said and from the sound of it in her voice she was on the verge of tears. "Nixon and Aaron have their wives and children back at the ranch, Gregory's home and family are there, I have my sister and I know Marty and Ezra are freaking out too."

"Hell yeah, my girlfriend is back there and if anything happens, I swear to god-"

"Calm down!" Jessie shouted, violently snatching the walkie from Ezra. "Ann and…Ann, god it sucks having two bad ass chicks with the same first name."

"Oh, butter us up another time." Ann Nixon scoffed into the walkie.

"Too bad you play for the other team baby and speaking of babies I promise I will get you home to your wife, sisters, daughter, cousins and ex-roommates' best friend. I just need you all to keep calm, drive carefully and stay focused, okay?"

The other care remained silent for a minute before someone responded.

"Ex-roommates' best friend?" Aaron chuckled from the other end.

"My humor sucks, sue me."

 **(Meanwhile)**

Back the ranch, Ann's sister, Angela Mac'Carty, was in the process of making lunch with a few of the other housewives that took refuge at the ranch. She was trying to help everyone keep calm and collected while everyone else was out taking care of those bikers.

She let out a heavy sigh as she watched Mercedes shuck the corn and Olivia, Aaron's wife, started cooking the chicken.

"I hope everyone is okay." Mercedes mumbled as she placed the last shucked corn on the plate.

"Yeah, I don't like the idea of my husband out there." Olivia said. "He should be here looking after his daughter."

"Maybe this is his way of looking after his daughter." Angela stated. "I mean he sees it as protecting her by getting rid of the bikers. Our parents were the same way. They'll be back before you know it."

"I hope." Mercedes sighed.

Outside, Clary Evan's was looking after the children with Harper Rose. They both felt nervous about what was happening out there and they didn't want anything to happen to the rest of the people in the camp.

"Shit," Harper groaned as she checked her Winchester Model 70 hunting rifle. "My nerves are a wreck." Clary looked at her and smiled as she slowly approached the younger teen and wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm scared too," Clary said as she tucked her curly reddish-brown hair behind her ear. "But I'm even more scared about what will happen if I run away and leave everyone. So, let's just try and keep our heads while we wait for everyone to get back and they will come back."

Harper nodded as Clary playfully flicked her on the forehead. The two giggled as the children ran up to them. Olivia Nixon, the daughter of Ann and Eliza, made her way up to them first, followed by Clara, who was giving Drew piggy back ride.

"Clary!" The older girl said. "There are walkers snagged up in the fence."

The two were quickly alerted and made their way to the fence. They told the kids to go and get Jason, while they took care of the stiffs.

Harper pulled out her K-Bar knife while Clary pulled out her Bowie knife. They had made it to the fence and to their horror and relief the walkers were all tangled up in the fence and collapsed on the ground. They moved in close with their blades and struck them in their heads with little to no effort.

"That was easy." Harper chuckled.

"Yeah, we should tell Trippy and Lester about this so they can fix it." Clary stated.

"Why bother, it'll just break again." Before the two girls could do anything, two bikers popped up from the ground itself, covered in grass clippings. One grabbed Clary from behind and wrapped one arm around her waist as his right arm snaked around her neck, pressing the blade of a buck knife against her throat. The other aimed both a Beretta 71 at Clary and a Colt Python at Harper.

"You girls really shouldn't have wandered out here by yourselves." The biker with the guns snickered. He pulled back the hammer on his dark steeled revolver and Harper watched at the cylinders roll. "Drop the gun!"

Harper did what she was told as she removed the rifle that was slung over her shoulder and placed it down on the grass. She slowly stepped away, but the biker kept his gun on her.

"Drop it!" Jason shouted as he aimed his M4 rifle at the man. He was soon followed by Johnny and Ivory.

"You drop those guns or I'll split this little bitch wide open!" The man holding Clary shouted, pressing the blade hard against her throat. She let out a small whimper as small streaks of blood started to drip down her neck.

"Careful there, cowboy," The man pointing his gun at Harper snickered. "My friend there has been pretty mad at the fact you killed so many of our boys. I mean look at you all, look at her." He said flickering his gun at Harper. "She's a fucking fifteen-year-old kid and you got her on watch duty?"

"And I know this bitch has no backbone." The man hold Clary sneered, causing the poor girl to shudder. "We've been watching you since the diner when we led those stiffs to you. You've just been crying your eyes out ever since this whole thing started. Poor little flower."

She came close to vomiting when she felt the hand on her waist rise up and caresses her right breast. Harper was starting to get pissed. Without thinking or caring she remembered her karate training and very quickly and swiftly raised her left hand towards the gun and her right at the man's wrist and disarmed him very easily.

The man was startled when the young girl he had just insulted was now pointing his gun at him. Both him and his friend were startled by this action and before anyone could do anything, she pulled the trigger.

A good chunk of his skull flew off as his friend was left standing there in shock. His grip loosened on Clary and she took the opportunity to pull the knife from her throat and push the man away from her. He stumbled back and fell on his ass while Clary pull her pistol from her belt and fired six rounds into his chest.

The two girls stood there for what felt like forever as smoke flowed out from their barrels. They didn't know what was scarier, the dead bodies before them or the empty feeling they didn't have after killing them. Jason and Johnny slowly approached the girls and the two jumped when they stepped close enough to them.

"Are you guys okay?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine." Harper said through some heavy breaths. Clary nodded and picked up her guns as Harper did the same. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and holstered the small Beretta on her lower back, before picking up the black steeled python with the wooden grip.

The barrel wasn't too long on the weapon, but she had heard that guns like these are literal hand cannons. She thought about handing it over, but she got a bit of a jolt when she started aiming down the sights. She nodded with a small smirk on her face, before reliving the former owner of his belt holster and his pocket full of bullets.

Clary retrieved her things as well, but before anyone did anything, the sounds of gunfire and screams were the only thing alerting them as they all quickly made their way back to the farm.

Bikers were all over the place, riding their bikes and gunning down anyone that came in their path. Trippy had a shotgun ready and blasted away one of them, before taking cover behind Paul's Chevy Cruise. Bullets scattered across the doors and popped one of the tires, but the old man was okay.

Mercedes was looking after the children as they all gathered in the kitchen. She grabbed her book bag off the kitchen table and tore open the bag to pull out her Glock 19 and her S&W Model 29 Snub.

"Drew, Olivia, Clara under the table, now!" She snapped at the children, who quickly clambered under the table. Using her foot, Mercedes dragged a chair in front of them, for whatever protection it may provide and covered the back door that lead to the back yard and down the hallway to the front door.

She flinched and jumped with every scream and every gunshot, but she kept her composure and swore to protect the children with her life.

Olivia, Clara's mother, nearly got shot in the face when she stumbled through the front door, covered in blood and wielding a lug wrench in one hand and a S&W 3913 in the other.

"Olivia, what the hell is going on out there!?" Mercedes snapped.

The woman stumbled into the kitchen and fell to her knees when she saw Clara.

"Oh baby, thank god you're all right!" She wept as she held her daughter close to her.

"Mama." Clara whimpered. "Why are you covered in blood and where did you get that gun?"

"I think you just answered your own question, sweetie." Mercedes said as gently as she could.

Olivia looked around the kitchen with a confused look as she tucked her daughter under the table. She stood next to Mercedes and aimed her gun at the back door.

"Where is Angela?" She asked.

"She went looking for Drew's mother." The young woman explained.

"Donna, shit!" Olivia snapped. "I think she went out hunting."

Suddenly, the back door burst open and Olivia was tackled to the ground by a biker, her gun was knocked out of her hand when she felt it slam down hard on the countertop. The children screamed as he wrapped his hands around the woman's neck. Mercedes aimed her gun at the man, but she felt a blow strike her on the back of the head and fell face down on the ground.

The kids whimpered as one man held a gun on Mercedes and the other was strangling Olivia. The man with the gun chuckled, before feeling something sharp strike through the back of his neck. His whole body went limp as he fell to the ground, the man on top of Olivia jumped off of her when he saw a hunting knife stuck out of the back of his head.

He looked up at the doorway and saw Angela with a frantic, but furious, look on her face. The wild look in her eyes was trained on him as she cocked her Remington 870 and with no hesitation aimed it at him and pulled the trigger.

The man was knocked back into the cabinets as a big red patch formed on his shirt as he laid slumped on the ground dead. Olivia was letting out a series of choked coughs as Angela helped Mercedes to her feet.

The young woman retrieved her Glock and fired a round into the man's skull to keep him from reanimating.

"Okay, we need to move upstairs, now!" Angela shouted.

Olivia and Mercedes gathered their weapons and the children and they all made their way upstairs. Angela loaded a shell into her gun and kept guard on the top of the stairs.

 **(!)**

Eliza Nixon and Elizabeth were taking cover behind the meat locker as bikers were taking shots at them. Elizabeth aimed down her automatic rifle and fired at a few of the bikers who were taking cover behind their van, but had no luck in hitting them.

The two ducked down again, dodging more bullets not knowing what to do. Jason, led the group of Johnny, Clary and Harper towards the group of bikers and they all took aim and fired at the small group. They managed to kill one of them, but the rest of them were quick enough to duck behind cover.

Jason was reloading his rifle when another group of bikers rolled in. They came by blasting automatic machine pistols in all directions, one of them drove by and littered the former soldier with nearly a dozen bullets.

"NO!" Johnny shouted as he fired at the fleeing bikers, but failing to hit them. He quickly made his way to the fallen soldier, but in doing so he forgot about the bikers who Elizabeth and Eliza were battling with.

"Johnny!" Eliza shouted out to the boy. The two bikers aimed at Johnny, but before they could shoot, Elizabeth's dog, Apollo, leaped out of nowhere and jumped on top of one of the bikers. The dog viciously sunk its teeth into the biker's throat as Eliza ran up behind the other biker and struck him in the back of the head with her pipe. Elizabeth quickly made her way over and watched her dog tear the man's throat out. She aimed her rifle at the man and popped a quick round into his head and made her way over to Johnny.

The young boy held the dying soldier in his arms as he coughed out blood. There was nothing they could do for him, there were to many bullets to survive that.

"Shit, man." Johnny whimpered. Jason just laid limp him his arms as blood poured out from his mouth. His eyes stared up into the cloudy sky as he fished something out from his left pocket. It was a folded-up piece of paper which he shoved into Johnny's chest.

"Take that and go, get everyone out of here." He grunted. Johnny couldn't get a word out, before Jason stuck his SIG in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

"Jason!" Johnny shouted.

"Johnny, he's gone, come on!" Harper said as she practically had to rip Johnny off of the dead soldier. They grabbed the discarded guns and made their way back to the house. Jessie's Jeep and Trippy's truck stormed in from the fields.

Jessie and Paul approached the small group as Ann went to her wife, Eliza. The two embraced each other, before Ann pulled away.

"Where is, Olivia?" Ann asked.

"At the house."

"What about Donna and Drew?" Marty asked.

"They're at the house too," Elizabeth informed them as she whistled for Apollo to come to her. "It's getting crazy. Everyone is either running or dying."

"We'll get out of here," Jessie stated. "We just gotta get to the house and then—"

"Crow!" Paul shouted.

Everyone looked at him as Crow cruised by with three other bikers behind him. Crow looked at them as he drove by, smirking as he held Leila's rifle. Paul raised his shotgun at the group and opened fired on them.

He didn't even hesitate to chase after them.

"Shit, I'll go after him." Eli snapped. "You guys get to the house, don't wait up!"

"Eli!" Jessie shouted after him as he went after Paul.

"Shit, I'll stay with them." Clary suggested. "You guys should go to the house, get your family and pack up."

"When did you get so bossy?" Victoria asked with a sly grin.

"We all have to grow up sometime." Clary said as she ran after the boys.

Jessie and Elizabeth gathered everyone up and they drove over to the house. Some bikers were either chasing after escaping civilians or getting into shootouts with them. Jessie shook his head at the unnecessary cruelty. He pulled up to the house and everyone quickly climbed out of the vehicles as they stepped up on the porch.

"Mercedes!" Ezra shouted!

"Ezra!" The young woman shouted as she stormed out of the house and the two embraced each other.

Soon everyone made their way out. Eliza and Ann grabbing onto Olivia. Marty once again finding his wife and son. It was a brief warm-hearted moment, but Jessie noticed Gregory kneeling next to someone on the porch.

It was Trippy, shot in the chest and holding onto his bullet ridden son, Lester. Jessie made his way over to the small family.

"They got us," Trippy coughed out. "God damn pussies with their automatics. We never had a chance."

"Trippy…I'm sorry."

"Don't…Don't apologize." Trippy coughed out. "I made my bed and I don't have any regrets…except for not killing more of these bastards. Listen, you get these people and you get them out of here…you get them…"

And that was all Trippy said.

Gregory said nothing and picked up his shotgun, before slowly stepping off of porch and into the fields. He could have stopped him, but there was nothing he could do or say. The only thing he could do was save these people.

"Everyone, get down!" Marty shouted.

Jessie turned to see another trio of biker's cruise by and like before they opened fired on everyone in the house. Jessie dropped down on the ground and braced himself for any oncoming bullets. He heard them strike the house behind him and he even felt a few of them whip past him, but he was lucky enough to come out of it unscathed.

Not everyone else was so lucky.

"Donna!" Marty shouted.

Jessie looked up at the destruction they had caused and his eyes widened in horror to see Marty holding his wife. Ezra had been shot in the arm and so had Ann Mac'Carty.

"Shit!" Johnny snapped as he crouched down next to Marty and his wife, he grabbed Drew and kept him from looking at his mother.

"Marty…why didn't you stay?" She whimpered with, Marty said nothing and just held his wife.

"It's my fault," Johnny wailed. "I was gonna go, but he didn't want me to get hurt, so he went in my place!" Then she went from whimpering to chuckling.

"That's my Marty…always the good guy." She whispered before going silent.

"No…" Marty sobbed as he held her close to him.

"Marty," Johnny whispered. "You know what we have to do."

Marty looked up at his former student and his eyes quickly fell to the switchblade in his hand. He nodded and quickly grabbed his son before dragging him inside the house. Jessie helped get the injured inside as Johnny was left to do what needed to be done.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Chang."

 **(!)**

Crow and his gang were finishing up on the current residents of the farm. He spotted a family packing up their belongings in their car. A malice grin formed on his face as he cruised by, aiming his rifle at the family. As soon as he was ready to pull the trigger, he felt something body slam him off of his bike. His bike crashed nearby and the family was allowed to escape safely. Crow couldn't get a good look as his face was being pummeled by someone. He managed to throw the man off of him and his eyes widened to see that it was Paul.

The young man aimed his shotgun at Crow, but in his rage, he forgot that his gun had run out of shells. Crow smirked and quickly pulled out his sawed-off shotgun and aimed it at Paul. The young man quickly ducked behind one of the many shot up cars, nearly getting shot by Crow's oncoming blast.

Paul pulled out his .45 and leapt out from cover and fired a few shots at Crow. Crow ran behind another broken down car as Paul kept shooting, making his way over to Crow's cover. Crow made his way around the cover, behind Paul and had his sawed-off aimed at the back of his head. Before he could pull the trigger, Clary leaped in with her bowie knife and managed to land a cut across Crow's right arm, causing him to drop the gun.

He let out a painful grunt, before slapping the young girl across the face. Paul charged towards the biker leader, tackling him to the ground. He struggled to aim his .45 at Crow, but he managed to grab the barrel of the gun keeping it off of him.

"Where the hell did all these bikers come from?" Paul grunted.

"I had a whole chapter on the way," He chuckled. "You think I really didn't expect you to try some bullshit?"

"Bastard!"

"Hey, don't get pissy with me." Crow said, managing to break Paul's hold on the pistol. He smacked the butt of the gun across Paul's jaw, knocking him off of Crow as the biker leader stood above him.

"I gave you the chance to surrender, I gave you a choice and you chose to fight back." He boasted. "You chose wrong asshole. Now all this death and destruction is on your soul. I will say this though. I have met a lot of shit heels in my time and killed most of them too, but you fucking nobodies have been the only ones to ever make me sweat like this. So, I am sorry about your friends and everything, but if it means anything to you, you did get me excited."

Crow pulled the hammer back on the pistol and right before he could pull the trigger, he felt something sharp pierce through his back. His grip loosened on the gun as it fell to the grassy ground.

He looked over his shoulder to see Clary behind him, knife in hand which was currently through his heart. He was about to die from the last person he expected to be killed from, he couldn't help but laugh.

"The damn kid, who would have thought it."

Clary pulled her knife from his back and Crow fell face first to the ground. Paul staggered to his feet as Clary smiled at him.

"Damn kid, when the hell did you get so ballsy." Paul chuckled.

"I figured it was about time, right?" She chuckled.

"Crow!"

They both turned to see some of the bikers gather around them, aiming their guns at them. The two didn't know what they were gonna do. Their guns were down and if they made any sudden moves they would shoot, but Paul knew they were gonna shoot regardless, so we would make the first move.

Before anyone could do anything, walkers had come lurking up behind the bikers from nowhere and had completely swarmed them. Screams and gunfire were heard only briefly before being drowned by the gruesome sounds the walking dead's groans, flesh being torn apart and bones breaking.

"Clary, Paul!" Eli shouted as he blasted away walker. "We have to go; a whole fucking herd of walkers just came out of the woods. We need to get the hell out of here."

Paul nodded as he collected his things and of course grabbed Leila's rifle. He didn't care about the gun, but he did care about the cross pendant wrapped around it. He looked down at Crow and without a moment of hesitation he aimed the barrel of the rifle at the back of Crow's head and popped a round into the back of his skull.

"No coming back for you, asshole."

He turned to get Clary, but his eyes widened when he saw a walker creep up behind her. He raised his rifle and fired a round into the center of its skull, but it was too late. Its teeth sunk into the crook of Clary's neck and all he saw was red.


End file.
